A restrictive covenant is a contractual obligation contained within the deeds of a property. They can have the effect of restricting a landowners use of their land and are particularly troublesome for property developers. But for a property owner facing a difficult neighbour, they can be a useful line of attack.
Restrictive covenants are used in all manner of ways. They can be used to ensure that a property with a view maintains that view; that no trade or business can be carried out in a residential setting or to prohibit any nuisance or annoyance.
If you are considering relying on a restrictive covenant to adjust your neighbour’s use of their land, you will need to assess whether the restrictive covenant is or remains enforceable, as well as whether the benefit and burden of the restrictive covenant has passed to you and your neighbour respectively.
The enforceability of restrictive covenants is a complex area of law. It will be necessary to consider amongst other things, the specific wording of the covenant to assess whether or not the restrictive covenant has been breached.
The usual remedy against your neighbour would be an injunction restricting the continuing or anticipated breach. But take note that not every breach of a restrictive covenant will warrant an injunction. You may therefore wish to seek independent legal advice before embarking on a restrictive covenant claim against your neighbour.
If you would like to discuss a potential claim further please contact our dispute resolution team on 0161 696 6178 .
We have terraced houses in front of us that have access only on the driveway we own. Their car parking spaces have restrictive covenants. One of these states that the owner must not use the property other than as a parking space for vehicles nor erect any structures thereon. Recently a few owners have placed storage bins and council bins on their parking spaces. One owner parks so far forward to avoid his bins, he is half parked on the access way which forbids any parking. I am unsure if they are allowed to store these bins on their spaces given what the covenant states? Are you able to advise please? Thank you
Response from Stephensons
Thank you for your comment, due to the fact sensitive nature of this type of claim our team would be best place to advise if you could call us to discuss this further. Our team can be reached on 0161 696 6178, alternatively if you complete our online enquiry form a member of the team will contact you directly.