Covenents

[hyperactive]

How valid are restrictive house covenants these days? Do they 'die' when the person that set them up is no longer with us?

[jaspercarrot]

as far as i know although im no expert that the covenants stay with the property for good and passes down to new owners unless you pay a solicitor to have them removed.

[rabbitygirl]

I have bought 2 properties this year with covenants. They are very common. My 60s bungalow came with a few which originate from the independent builder now long since gone. I am aware of the covenants but I am told by my solicitor that these would be very difficult to uphold now. If the local council had taken on upholding them then it would be different.

The covenants include, no caravan parking, no high fences, no high washing (ignored by one neighbour)., keep the front gardens unfenced. Nothing out of the ordinary, though more in number that you would expect.

I think in my case it is more gentlemens (or womens) agreement. I wonder how many actually do complain about these covenants. I'll test it this year when I fence off a small area of side land. This may prompt complaints by neighbours and I shall see.

My other house, older and which you'd presume would come with more covenants, actually has only one.

This one I wont be testing. I am not allowed to boil tripe!!

[buildersmate]

Covenants do stay with the land forever. An convenant that is now demonstrable as irrelevant can potentially be removed using a solicitor. Unless it is causing you particularly pain it is probably not worth doing so.

[mrs_overall]

All the houses in my street (built 1920's) have restrictive covenants on them, stating no sheds, greenhouses, garages, extensions etc. Every house in the street flouts the covenant. If you are really worried you can take out a one off indemnity insurance which should cost between �50-�100. When we bought the house our solicitor said there was no point bothering with the insurance as our extension was built in the 1980's. He said if anyone connected with the original builder/covenant popped up now, they would get no where in court as the first question would be, why haven't they come forward before now?

[spudqueen]

When we sold our last house we had to take out insurance as an extension had been built (before we moved in) and the original builders permission had not been sought. I did point out that as the house was built in the 1920's I didn't think it likely that the builder was still alive, but it was in the covenant (along with the fact that we couldn't sell hard liquor or become a slaughter house!), so nothing we could do.