Covenants

[Shotinthedark2022]

Hi Mumsnetters.I hope someone can give me a bit of advise.

I am in the process of buying a property that is over a 100 years old.The vendor has kept land around it,and has built a new house on that land and is going to build another house also.
Today i received the contract to sign which also included the title of the property.There are quite a lot of covenants in it,which took me by suprise considering it is an old property(not listed).They are very much like new build covenants...No chickens,pigeons etc.No livestock,other than domestic pets.N buisness to run from premises.No signs to be put up.Can't let it as an holiday let.No Air/BB.Must keep garden tidy.Must not do anything to upset vendor.(he is going to live in one of newbuild properties.More besides.I have to say i was completly taken aback.It sounds more like a rental,not something i am paying good money for.I really don't know weither to continue with purchase as i feel he is going to be overseeing everything i do.Has anyone else had any experience of this kind,and what did you do.Also,can you get these covenants removed?
Thank you in anticipation.

Unless it was my 100% perfect property and an amicable agreement could be reached, I think I'd walk away.

Some of his covenants make it sound like you'll always be living in 'his' house, in 'his' garden.

Honestly, I would walk away.

£3k is nothing compared to the stress and hassle living in the vicinity of this owner, they sound like nightmare neighbours waiting to happen.

Removing covenants is extremely difficult and you would need the approval of the person/company/LA that imposed them, which obviously isn't going to happen if they have only just imposed them.

Personally, I ran a mile from any property with restrictive covenants when I was looking.

I wanted the house I bought to feel like mine, and not have lots of 'rules'!

The question you must ask yourself - if you'd known about the covenants, would you have even offered on this property?
Would you have offered the same amount?

I would:

1. pull out Or
2. offer a much reduced price & only agree to the reasonable covenants

We once offered on a house A which was built by the father and then he built another house B for his daughter in the same plot which is now the neighbour, the father died and mother still lives in the old house, which came up for sale, we bought the title from the LR website and then saw some unusual covenants imposed at the point the daughters house was built, like owner of house A not to do anything to reduce the enjoyment of house B blah blah etc there were other problems with the house itself ( a chunk of this plot A sold to plot B later on to enle them to build a side extension adjoining house A) and we swiftly walked out early on in the process
So it seems like when owner sells part of land and still lives in their part they likely put these covenenants to protect themselves but naturally scare potential buyers away...

That house had been on and off for sale since 2015 still not sold! Now they have increased the price from 1.35M in 2021 to 1.6M in 2023 hilarious 🤣