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 😞

As a % of the whole cost the fee itself should not be a deal breaker. (Could use a credit card or juggle payments to squeek the extra cash.) Now if they call round to borrow a cup of sugar or their house goes on fire .....😅decisions.. decisions....

Ask your solicitor what cost would be involved on their side and for a recomendation of who to use. Plus extra cost of a letter of engagement limiting the scope of work to the minimum needed to close the sale. In theory the bulk of the work should not be done yet.... and you are not paying for it anyway!!
Then its down to how much you want the place and if you can let the hassle go.

The upside is it looks as if the NDN's are not as much of A-holes as you believed🤷‍♀️

Slight update incase anyone is interested 😂

And hopefully someone will give me the confidence to just pull out of this thing and move on regardless of it being a great house and location.

the sellers have come back to our amendments that we requested on the covenants. Basically refusing them all. I have laughed hard at the pettiness I must admit!

They will allow up to six chickens and no male birds.
They will allow up to 2 dogs or cats.
We can't extended without their permission.
We can't have a business registered at the property.
We can't cause them any disturbance, annoyance, nuisance or inconvenience 😅😂

Would be fully expecting them to come round exactly how many pets we have! God forbid we got a gerbil!!

They won't tell us their intentions for the retained land. Just saying it will be used as it is FOR NOW and they absolutely will not agree to the covenants of no business use on the retained land therefore they could have all sorts of plans for it.

So basically, they want complete control over their remaining land (to be honest this is always a risk loving next to any field) but also want complete control over the property we would be buying and full access rights while having all our money in their back pocket.

It feels like we'd be renting it from them! Our solicitor has also advised it could devalue the house in future with all these restrictions on it.

Tell me we're doing the right thing pulling out of what could have been our dream home? 😥

Their communication has been shocking so we're leaving them sweat for a while before responding because everything has taken weeks to get back to them

Wow the bloody cheek!!!! You would basically be a Tennant on their land. Definitely walk away please.

It's hardly a dream home with these control freaks breathing down your neck!

This is a huge red flag as they will be your neighbours. They sound dreadful and they'll probably be sending you legal.letters within weeks of moving in over something they don't like.

I'm sure it will devalue as I wouldn't go anywhere near buying it. Your market of buyers will be greatly reduced. Mortgage companies might get jumpy too.

Pull out @hummingbird12 .
You can do better. You don't need this level of control from them. Your solicitor has advised this could devalue your house for a future sale - this is as close as a solicitor is ever going to get to advising you to pull out, they are careful cautious blighters. YOUR SOLICITOR IS SUBTLY TELLING YOU NOT TO BUY THIS PROPERTY!

This really is not the house for you. They are going to have trouble selling this to anybody frankly.

Run a mile! They will want to control everything you do - and complain at the slightest thing that you do they don't like... what if you whistle in the garden - that might disturb them... What if the dog barks once... etc etc. You'd be treading on eggshells and not find you could live as you want to there.

You have to pull out. Even if they took the covenants away they've shown their unreasonable personalities. They'll be nightmare neighbours.

Walk away!

Given your updates, you have tried to negotiate. They have refused. This will be an awful place to be for the rest of your life, having to consider their needs.

I would also be scared whitless by them expecting you to pay their legal fees. Just what does that mean? Any cap…so they could fight you on every point throughout this purchase …and you pay all of the fees for them to do this to you… MADNESS.

Donkeys, pheasant, and peacocks are allowed and are vocal🤣

Run away.
They have plans be it housing or business development.

Thanks everyone. I feel better for just venting it out.
It's a real shame. We would have been nice neighbours.

The EA has just called and he was just so apologetic. He said he's never known anything like it. He said we've been more than reasonable and even tried to negotiate but "they want to have their cake and eat it too".

Thank you for all the responses!!❤️

Really hope you are thinking with your heads and not hearts- this will be an ongoing hugely costly nightmare in the future for you. I know you've invested so much of your time, money,life expectations in this property but let this one go..get out while you can.

Would love a donkey 🤣😂

That's exactly it. My husband is a gentle soul and he loves to see the good in everyone and until now he has tried to give them the benefit of the doubt.

But we definitely need to think with our heads on this one ❤️

Crikey, I thought when you said that the bonkers covenants were inserted by their solicitor, things would be resolved amicably, but the vendors don't seem much better. Over the years, we've bought, sold and developed several properties, one in particular was bound by a list of covenants but all were written with common sense and weren't overly restrictive.

Your vendors seem to be under the impression that they'll be your landlords and you must be terribly grateful for their generosity. Apart from the covenants being laughable, I think they'd be the neighbours from hell. I also think would think ahead to the difficulties you will face if or when you come to sell. It's very hard to think with your head not your heart when you've found your ideal home, but in your shoes I'd walk away now.

Sadly I’ve seen people insist on similar ridiculous covenants. It wasn’t my file, but I really hope our clients walked away.

Your vendors seem to be under the impression that they'll be your landlords

@Autumnnow has nailed it right there.

OP, they would be absolute nightmare neighbours if you moved there, and then if it escalated to a dispute then you'd struggle to sell the house and move on.

I think they'd be the neighbours from hell.

They would.

Thank you. Me and DH need to have a talk tonight but we will be sending an email to our solicitor first thing to pull out of the sale.

PP's have really summed it up. They want to be our landlord but also want hundreds of thousands of pounds from us and we should be so grateful they've allowed us to live in their run down 1970's house.

We've done our best to negotiate and come to an amicable solution. The sellers seem to be taking everything their solicitor says as gospel when in reality he's clearly not all there and his conduct has been appalling

As others have summed up the whole arrangement they want is one similar to a landlord. The EA has apologised and stated he’s never heard anything like it.

Frankly this isn’t just not the house for you. As it stands it’s not the house for any owners. May work if they decide to rent it out but that’s about the size of it.

🤷‍♀️

Glad you're pulling out this sale OP, it's un fathomable,

• what if they vetoed every single set of plans you had drawn up for an extension and this nice but dated house can never become your dream home.

• your kids are too noisey one time in the garden and they evoke the nuisance/ disturbance etc, they could stop you having a trampoline on these grounds I would hate to be stepping on eggshells in my own garden

• they dont sound reasonable enough at all to allow them retained access to your utilities! Or over your garden!

They're bonkers!

Blimey OP, credit to you both for keeping so calm and reasonable throughout all this!

The vendors are nuts - oh, it's their solicitor who's nuts - no turns out they're ALL nuts😩 I suppose the best thing is that at least your would-be neighbours showed their true colours before you moved in!

You're right that no house is worth this and I bet your disappointment is fading already. Onwards and upwards, and this'll make a great story!

Wow, 100% making the right decision to pull out. I really hope you find a new house soon OP

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that this type of covenant is very common on older properties which were once part of an estate. I was buying a house with those exact covenants ( apart from the pets one) which had been applied in 1919. All the houses in the whole postcode are subject to the same covenants as they were all part of a large estate that was sold off. My solicitor told us it was a way of landed gentry fallen on hard times to retain control and that the covenants were pretty standard.

In a way you can understand them not wanting a business/ cock-a doodle- do- ing/ hundreds of dogs next door if they have a way of avoiding it. I actually don't think it means that they will be watching you, it just means they get a say in whether their neighbours cause a nuisance, which I think we would all want if we could!