Covenants

[hummingbird12]

We are 6 months in to purchasing our next home. Our buyers are ready to proceed to completion but we have received the contract today for our onward purchase with some, what we think, ridiculous covenants.

The house is part of a larger piece of land so we are just buying the house and the garden and they're keeping the rest. We only found out last week the vendors won't pay the fee to split the title deed so we have to fork out an extra £1200 in solicitor fees for our solicitor to do it. We didn't know they owned the land next door until the searches came back.

They built another house on the other side 20 years ago or so and we are buying the bungalow their late mother lived in so the vendors will be our only neighbours. They have put in place some covenants and would like other thoughts...

• no business's (I used to have a photography business and recently have thought about setting it up again) & no air bnb's etc
• no alterations such as extensions whether permanent or temporary or Not allowed to change the fence without asking their permission. Unless they decide to build on the retained land on which case they wouldn't withhold permission for the fence.
• no chickens. The house behind owns chickens and it's semi rural so not unusual. Not something we want right away but have talked about it.
• no pets other than one dog or cat (our solicitor has already crossed this out before sending to us but thought it was extremely cheeky they even put it in there.) we own a spaniel and are considering another dog for security due to location.

Am I unreasonable to think they are being CF's? The house is detached. We are respectful people and wouldn't do anything inconsiderate. We were planning on extending. Only a 3x6m single storey. Why on earth should we have to ask their permission for any of these things? Has anyone got any advice or been in this situation? We've already responded to the solicitor and said we reject these but we loved the house and now potentially have to start from scratch after 6 months 😞

That's how it seems for us as well. I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt but they seem like they want complete control over the land and what we do with it but also want all of our money in their back pocket.

They also have requested we don't put any restrictions on the land they are retaining next to us.
They have applied for planning to build additional houses in the past (it was rejected, we think due to access as it's just a little lane but it's also a green belt area) so we think that's their intention to apply again, especially that they also want access to our garden to install or maintain services.

They want their cake and to eat it too by the sounds of it.

The more you post the more disagreeable this all sounds.

Do you really want any of this potential hassle that could turn into really unpleasant circumstances further down the line?

It really does sound as though they want their cake and to eat it too with a nice solid financial wedge from you in the bargain.

Ask yourself this. If you had known all of this at the outset would you have been interested in this property and gone ahead with the buying process or would you have just immediately thought no?

If you want to walk away and recover your costs you could try and argue that the property was mis advertised and misrepresented.

I think piss off seems appropriate here. Who the hell do they think they are? If they are so protective of their environment they should stop trying to exploit it to line their own pockets and live with a run down house next door and the associated costs or knock it down.

The more I think about it the more upset I am about the whole thing.
We offered at the end of August. In fairness they were patient when we lost our original buyer but we had a new one in less than a week. But they are all ready to go it's the things with our vendors causing a delay now.

The house is the perfect location for the dc school and close to family etc. houses don't come up often in this village.

To be honest, I really don't know what we would have done if all this information would have been laid out at the beginning. Or even if we would have proceeded. We may have just struck it off or we may have negotiated the price. I really don't know. It's absolutely not worth what we are paying if they won't allow us to do the work we want to do.

I feel like we're so invested in it now it would be such a shame but also we aren't going to be stupid about it. This was going to be our home to raise our children. I don't want to feel like I'm walking on eggshells forever.

I feel like they've made us dislike them before we even move in and we definitely didn't want that!

Walk away, OP. Some of these covenants are okay ( to me) some are just self interested and inappropriate.

I don’t think you would enjoy living there, and I don’t think they will manage to sell it to anyone with those demands.

It's clearly not a house for you if you are looking to extend.

My only concern would be them wanting access to my garden to build next door and all the horrors that would entail.

Other than that... I'd love to have no Airbnbs and no noisy/smelly businesses in the neighbouring properties, I'd love to be able to halve the amount of cats shitting in my garden, would be nice to know that someone can't just spring up a huge, light blocking extension and if I could force the neighbours legally to maintain their own out-of-control trees then... It would be almost bearable to have neighbours.

My early Victorian house covenants prohibit numerous things (including some businesses, being a nuisance, soiling in the garden, keeping farm animals, altering front or rear garden walls). It's not like it's a new thing that people need to be told how to be considerate neighbours.

If you really want the house you need to start talking to your family and get them to ask around to find out what type of people they are.
They have been local for 20+ years so the mix of local gossip will tell what they are like on a personal level and on a business level.
This local information will indicate if there is any point in spending time and money trying to work through the contract and what you are likely to expect when you move in.

I suppose it depends in how they respond to your rejection of certain aspects of their wishes.

The two huge difficulties for me would be you wanting to extend the property, and the possibility of them being granted planning permission for additional houses on their valuable land. This government wants to lighten up planning and build more houses so what was rejected before may well be granted in the future.

I would also be hugely mistrustful and have a dislike of them for being so underhand in not declaring any of this earlier. It doesn't bode well for the future.

But I think you have to be careful of not falling into the sunk cost fallacy being invested in proceeding. This could be the red flag waving that is needed to make you really consider whether this property is worth all of the hassle to you or not.

We absolutely will be considerate neighbours.
We are quiet people. With one small dog and two children. They advised the EA they wanted to sell to a family.
We don't plan to do a massive light blocking extension. Or own businesses that become a nuisance.

But also they shouldn't be allowed to dictate these things. People are allowed to live their lives, earn a living or own a pet if they wish.

I'm happy to negotiate not having commercial vehicles or a cow in the garden but as for asking their permission to alter my home, as long as I'm within planning guidelines, it's really none of their business.
If anything I do think we are ideal neighbours because we keep to ourselves.

I'm happy to negotiate not having commercial vehicles or a cow in the garden but as for asking their permission to alter my home, as long as I'm within planning guidelines, it's really none of their business.

The problem is with covenants imposed on the land/property it is a more complex issue than just dealing with planning guidelines from the local authority.

I think it's really underhand of them to spring all this on you at the last minute.
You really need to take the long view. Even if they retract it all now, are you going to be able to relax living next door to them? It's a horrible situation but it honestly doesn't sound worth it. They sound so controlling.
I feel for you, I really do.

@hummingbird12 I'd walk away. Too many unknowns for the future regarding future development by the current owners.

Just to point out "commercial vehicle" is a government (tax) classification could end up including a small wheelchair adapted motor vehicle so that a consideration if you are buying a rural car (city tractor). A ride-on-mower will also have a clasification. So details matter.

If you did buy, the horrors come true, you’d lose substantially on a resale.

Thank you.
I appreciate there's bigger problems in the world but I think it's really sh*tty of them to drop all of this on us now. I'm so sad as we were so excited. We had started packing this week thinking we would be moving by the end of the month.

We will see what they come back with. If they drop them all or they re negotiate. I will update when we know more

Oh crikey! It just goes on doesn't it 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️
My dh was excited for a ride on mower. Best not put that in there.

This is another major concern. Although we'd plan to stay for a long time we don't know whether we'd have to relocate for work or any other reason so we can't have something that would hinder a future sale

This is very important too.

If the covenant is too restrictive it will impact a future sale as well as others may well not like the restrictions imposed.

Is their estate agent the type to beat some sense into them because, if you pull out and they try this on with future prospective buyers, it might be a long time before the agent might be paid for all the work they have done and might still have to do.

The EA is actually great. He's an independent and he's also selling our house. His communication has been excellent and he seemed to think they were pleased to be selling the house to us.

I think we will wait for them to respond to us rejecting the covenants and go from there but hopefully he should be able to help if we need him to.
If we have to pull out he may also loose our sale which I really don't want to do to him as he has been great and he's self employed.

The house we where buying had an ancient covenant on it from the local reverend nearly 150 years ago... we were not allowed to turn it into a brothel.

Well there goes my plans lol.

I didn't realize you could refuse them, I don't know who we would have been accountable too (other than the police) if we decided to open a 'house of ill repute' anyway as the person who instigated the rule it is LONG dead.

🤣🤣🤣😂😂

A historic covenant would have been negotiated at the time the land was sold back 00s of years ago. That is the process the op is going through now.

There are sometimes historic covenants which will be breached by development and you can get indemnity insurance for them.

I’d have walked seat when they asked you to pay their legal costs for drafting the TP1. That’s the seller’s cost to pay so they can sell you a proper title.