Should we worry about Covenants on the property title.

[BroglieBoy]

We are buying a freehold property in England and the Title search came up with the following:

"The Transfer to the proprietor contains a covenant to
observe and perform the covenants referred to in the Charges Register
and of indemnity in respect thereof."

A Transfer of the land in this title dated 17 June 1977 made between
(1) ABC Limited and (2) XYZ contains restrictive covenants.

We checked with the conveyancing solicitor but we are not clear what this means.
Is this very common? Should we be worried due to this? Should we avoid such properties? We plan to extend the property and the conveyancing solicitor mentioned to us that we need to take permission from 2 parties.
one from the Planning permission and second form this covenants.

Anyone had any experience with such restrictions? Any advise?

I’d never buy a property with covenants, friends have one and they cannot sell it.

But what are the covenants? Your post doesn’t say? What do they restrict? And why can’t you ask your solicitor..?

I was not aware as well i just googled and saw this video

Solicitor is not able to explain clearly. I am told they are very common in England but the video says otherwise. I am now more confused.

Thanks, The way the Solicitor explained to us is that it is very common and its just a formality.

You need to find out what the covenants are. My last house had two, one was not to keep chickens and thr other not to operate as a public house. Neither of which we intended to do. It was a Victorian property, it’s also quite easy to get them removed in many instances, but can be lengthy. Your solicitor is right, they are very common,

but if you don’t know what they are, you can’t decide.

You need to get insurance though in case it is an issue when you sell.

Most properties come with restrictive covenants (things you mustn't do) and for example they could be not to turn the property into a liquor store, not to keep a boat on the drive etc. You need to ask to see a copy of the Transfer dated 17 June 1977 so you can read what they are. Each time the property changes hands, the buyer (or new owner) must sign to say they will not breach those covenants. You are agreeing to this when you sign the Transfer Deed. Your extension/development must not breach any of the restrictive covenants.

Well no, she needs to find out where they are, as said, mine was not operating a pub or keeping chickens. Why would I have got indemtiy insurance against that. Many new builds have them to not put big walls at the front etc.

op ask what they are.

Really? They're pretty common in older properties and usually pretty innocuous

If they are silly you get them lifted - we had one years ago telling us we had to allow orphaned children access to beach - got it lifted

Did you make that up?😂

Those poor orphans @Notaflippinclue... I don't know how you can live with yourself. 😂

They are very common. The devil is in the detail as to what they are. They may be a conplete non-issue. Ask the solicitor again.

Thanks for quick feedbacks. Much appreciated. If we want to lift this restrictions is this easy and cheap or is this a lengthy legal work and expensive?

@BroglieBoy this just explains the principle of a covenant. You need to ask your solicitor what the specific restrictions are on the property as a result of the restrictive convenant described.
As others have said, then you can decide.

Those are all questions you want answered by your solicitor, not Mumsnet. If you don't understand their explanation then complain and ask for someone more senior to explain them for you. This is what you are paying them for and they have access to the underlying documents.

It depends what the covenant is. Honestly op, no one can help you. Until you find out what the covenants are. Your solicitor seems to think it’s no biggie, so likely something silly. So ask them to find out what they are.

some are quick and easy, some you will never succeed ie if the covenant is you can’t put a six foot wall round the front garden on a new build estate.

Depends on the covenant how easy it is to remove and whether it's going to be an issue.

Massive red flag that they can't explain them to you or haven't. It's really common.

Also 1977 is fairly recent as far as these things goes. The really old ones are usually more silly and less worrying.

We have one saying I can't fire my own bricks with or without a kiln can't imagine I'm going to have trouble selling because of it

You need to see what they are, yes they are common but they may not be of any concern eg mine include not keeping farm animals (fat chance, the garden is the size of a postage stamp!) not allowed to keep a camper van or commercial vehicle in the residential car park (completely ignored) not allowed to operate a business from the house (also completely ignored), my previous house had the no business rule too, and a requirement to inform the covenant owner if we wanted to extend, but as that was written over 80 years prior we didn't bother, wasn't brought up at all when we sold as covenants over 80 years old are considered defunct apparently.

You would need to get insurance for breach of restrictive covenant if a copy of the Transfer dated 17 June 1977 is not available, because if you don't know what the restrictive covenants are, you don't know if you are breaching them.

It must be available. If the solicitor is saying they need to inform if they want to extend, but the op needs to fund out what it says, and who needs to be informed, the other party could be from 50 years ago and this is now irrelevant

My parents was can run an house of ILL Repute and not to allow horses to be tied outside the house

I am a conveyancer, most properties have restrictive covenants of one sort or another. Older properties often have covenants such as not to keep livestock or turn the house into a public house etc. All modern estate houses have covenants which are things such as not to alter the property without the consent of the developer, not to use the property as business premises, to keep the front gardens unfenced etc and a dozens more of the same sort of thing. These are totally normal. All you need to do is ask your solicitor to request a copy of the 1977 deed from the land registry (or she/he can ask the sellers solicitor for a copy) and then you will know what restrictive covenants there are in place.

You’d be hard pushed finding a house round my area without covenants in place. All the land used to be owned by one big family… hundreds of years ago. Our house was built in 1980. The covenants include not keeping chickens or hanging washing on the front drive. Very odd, outdated and noone cares!

My Victorian terrace has loads of silly covenants about not keeping horses in the back yard, not extracting any sand or gravel, no fairground sideshows or showman's wagons to be kept on the plot. Not relevant or enforceable these days.

It does also have one about erecting and maintaining fences to a certain height which probably might be (but of course is fine with us).

A secondary plot added to the title much later on does have one about no buildings - it might preclude a garden office in that location I guess, but no one is going to grumble about the garden shed which has been there for 25+ years.