Restrictive Covenants

Soldato
Joined
5 Nov 2010
Posts
24,813
Location
Hertfordshire
Do these actually get enforced, at all?

We have a few on our cul-de-sac and there are a few of them being broken, one of which is annoying me.
Do you suppose i should bother raising it and with whom should i do so?
 
The Law of Property Act 1925 section 78 covers Restrictive Covenants
I let my solicitor sort out the mess,when I had Restrictive Covenant some years ago, & yes they are enforceable.

A Restrictive Covenant can cover anything, from hedges & trees, buildings, land & it uses, to the colour of your front door.
 
Last edited:
There was one on our last property that stated no sky satellite dishes where to be bolted to the side of the house. We ignored it, as that is a daft covenant.

Which covenant is being broken?
 
Yep they are enforceable, however depending on how stupid they are, you can apply for planning permission (if necessary - speak to the council) to lift the restriction :)

Had an issue with my council and a small fence not so long back.
 
one of which is annoying me.

You sound like a neighbour we have who I constanly try to irritate :D

We have covenants
  • No hedges or walls on the front garden (so I built one)
  • No commercial vehicles
  • No chickens or pigs (looking at getting chickens)
Ours were written in the 60s so don't really stand the test of time and how enforcable are they, well that's how deep your pockets are, who's going to take them to court? no one?

What's the particular broken covenant?
 
Ours are mostly things like "having the front of the land/property open" (i.e. no fences, hedges and walls etc) and a few other things to do with "looks".

But it's the commercial vehicle one.
I would like to point out, i have no problems with commercial vehicles really. I'm just trying to build up a list of ways to get someone to stop parking their big van in a stupid place and a van being parked out the front of my house making it difficult to enter and exit from my drive (yes i have tried talking to the people). Wondered if i could add the Restrictive Covenant to the list of things to try.

I'm thinking not, as there are many commercial vehicles in the neighbourhood and it's quite a silly RC from the 70s so i don't think it would be enforced and if it did, it would end with worms everywhere.
 
Normally enforced by local council, but they are unlikely to bother.

We live on a fairly new estate, covenant restricts visible aerials and sky dishes. Reception is practically impossible with an in loft aerial (people have tried) so practically everyone has a sky dish.

Was some rumour amongst the local estate agents about 4 years ago that a new planning officer had moved into the area and was making his mark by stamping on people breaching covenants.

I suffered a shared access drive before (never again) and that was covenanted but theres naff all you can do bar solicitor, but then you need to declare a neighbour dispute if selling.

Personally I would park my car in that spot as often as possible to make them park elsewhere.
 
Normally enforced by local council, but they are unlikely to bother.

We live on a fairly new estate, covenant restricts visible aerials and sky dishes. Reception is practically impossible with an in loft aerial (people have tried) so practically everyone has a sky dish.

Was some rumour amongst the local estate agents about 4 years ago that a new planning officer had moved into the area and was making his mark by stamping on people breaching covenants.

I suffered a shared access drive before (never again) and that was covenanted but theres naff all you can do bar solicitor, but then you need to declare a neighbour dispute if selling.

Personally I would park my car in that spot as often as possible to make them park elsewhere.

Would do, but our drive is big enough for 3 cars and would look odd.. but they'd get the idea... if only it ever move!! It's not moved in 2 weeks (the one out the front)
Turns out It's taxed until the end of this month so i will be keeping an eagle eye on it..

The one parked stupid is way down the road and parking there is not a good idea (junction, making it blind).

Why not just ask

Why not just read my post

can you just park your car there before they do

iirc you cannot park a commercial vehicle on your drive but you can park it anywhere on the roadside

Really? Dang.

It looks as though it's not used anymore and just left there because the guy has 3 other vehicles on his drive.


After some research, it looks like this one (and many others) just don;t matter anymore. Will give up on that idea and look elsewhere.

Thanks though guys, only found out about RCs recently and it's handy to get other's thoughts.
 
Ok... Strangest thing just happened not 10 minutes ago!
Was just woken up by someone starting the van outside, a transit van pulled up connected leads upto the van and was trying for about 5 minutes to start it.

Started it and off they went. It wasn't anybody that I've seen recently.. So I have a sneaky suspicion that it belonged to the previous owner of the house!! (Been here just over 2 weeks).

Well at least that's one of the problems sorted!
 
Ok... Strangest thing just happened not 10 minutes ago!
Was just woken up by someone starting the van outside, a transit van pulled up connected leads upto the van and was trying for about 5 minutes to start it.

Started it and off they went. It wasn't anybody that I've seen recently.. So I have a sneaky suspicion that it belonged to the previous owner of the house!! (Been here just over 2 weeks).

Well at least that's one of the problems sorted!

Now go park a car there for a bit in case they come back! :D
 
Deeds for my 98 year old house say that every dwelling in the street has to have uniform height hedge rows separating the gardens.

The hedges are all long gone replaced by various heights, styles, and widths of fences and walls. Basically a right mess. :(
 
Back
Top Bottom