Old covenants in deeds

[Russinating]

We're moving into a commercial premises that has a few covenants on the deeds. The entry is dated 21/09/1995 which is when the property was last sold, but the covenants themselves date from 01/02/1917 and were made between two dudes with exceptional names.

The covenant I'm questioning is "intoxicating liquors shall not be sold [etc]", alongside other dated ones such as "cant windows" must be erected "of pennant stone with freestone dressings and not of a less value than one hundred and forty pounds for materials and labour".

The dudes are obviously long dead, but I assume the land and their other assets are in a trust somewhere. How do you legally go about requesting changes to covenants in deeds, and if that's basically totally infeasible due to the age of them and the landowners, what's the worst that can happen if you erect windows that cost less than £140?

 

[Russinating]

No businesses can be run from mine, unless you are a doctor, dentist or a member of a legal profession ie solicitor.(1961 covenant).

Thats an odd one, what if you are a self employed plumber or you wife has a side line in making cheap jewlery flogged on ETSY or something? I wonder just how enforceable that would be in this day and age.

That's in most deeds, particularly for apartments.

I was joking about the window being the issue in our deeds, it's the sale of "intoxicating liquors".

I think the don't ask bit is probably pertinent for us. It's not essential to our use of the space, just a nice to have anyway. And the definition of liquor is even arguable; beer isn't defined as a liquor by the EU, for example.

 

[Russinating]

As mentioned and alluded to, alcohol sale isn't anything to do with the primary business, it's just to support events we host, refresh guests etc.