Covenants Builder Wants £60,000 To Remove. Want To Give Some To Charity Instead

[meltdom]

plot of land now with planning permission..covenants states..not to make an external alterations additions or extensions to any building to be erected upon the property hereby conveyed or any part thereof without the prior written approval of the trustees or their successors in title.
My question is are they entitled to this money and can they charge what they like ?

[buildersmate]

Precisely, and unless the OP is a builder himself, what he wants is to release the value of the land. Anyone choosing to buy it will automatically downstate the value by a risk factor because of the great potential for future hassle. The eventual houses would be unsaleable.
No the convenent issue has to be faced square on now, before more value is invested in trying to further enhance by building on it.

[tamborine]

".....not to make an external alterations additions or extensions to any building to be erected upon the property hereby conveyed..."

If that is 1980 covenant, it applies only to the 1980 building and not the garden or further development within? Its an ambiguous covenant & arguable.

[buildersmate]

Yes of course it is, but all the builder holding the convenent has to do, is threaten legal action. Then when OP tries to sell, prospective buyer finds out about the future for hassle and the uncertainties knock the value back.

[Peter Pedant]

o well spotted Tambo....

worth professional advice I would say

( negative convenants are interpreted restrictively I think, not widely )

[Eve]

Did I miss something, I can't see anything tying the covenant to 1980 and restrictive covenants run with the land. It looks like a pretty standard wording of a restrictive covenant.

[buildersmate]

Come on guys, get real - there's no point making yet more work for lawyers. If you take independent Legal advice and it comes back with "in my opinion this convenent is unenforceable" do you seriously expect a buyer of the ppl lot to accept that?
He will want his own legal opinion.
No, you tell prospective buyers about the issue and let them take their own advice.
Or you negotiate based on the little bit of unknown that I suggested above.
The damage was done the LA granted the consent with the legal convenent still in place.

[themas]

!. As already said, you must sort this out now, & not build without doing so.

2. It is a fairly straightforward negotiation. There is a point at which they will decide your offer is too low; there is a point at which you will decide their demand is too high. The end result must gradually narrow the gap until you meet somewhere in the middle.

3. You could probably do with some properly qualified advice. This is unlikely to come from a solicitor. In the days when I dealt with this sort of thing it was with help from estate agents and surveyors who were qualified to value land & who knew the market in the area. Your common or garden residential agent is not likely to be so qualified.

[joko]

what does giving to charity have to do with anything?

how would giving the cash to charity instead solve this issue? - they will still want the cash surely?