Requesting change to covenant

[richienotrich]

Hi all,

I have this paragraph in my deed which refers to some thing in a report where I am unable to change the colour of my garage door & front door. I want to email someone to see what the process is for requesting a change in colour to the garage doors & front doors as I hate the colour & they need replacing really. I'm just not sure if I contact Redrow or Barratt Homes for this. Also do i email their legal department or customer services?

Anyone got any experience on this?

A Transfer of the land in this title and other land dated 29 January
1998 made between (1) Leeds Community and Mental Health Services
Teaching National Health Service Trust (Vendor) (2) Redrow Homes
(Yorkshire) Limited (Redrow) and (3) Barratt Homes Limited (Purchaser)
contains the following covenants:-
"The Purchaser hereby covenants with the Vendor in the terms set out in

[tozerman]

Where I live in Derby all the houses my way are Barrett homes. We all had a tree in the front garden which the covenant states must not be cut down, also we are not allowed to put a fence up on the front of the property between our front garden and the pavement.
Our house was built in 1979.
All I will say is very very few houses still have the tree (we don't as I cut the f***er down) and many houses have a fence erected.

[K4sper]

from the truncated extract you provided it sounds like the benefit of the covenant is with the vendor (whoever that was at the time) so you will need to speak with them in the first instance about getting it amended

[richatnort]

K4sper said:

from the truncated extract you provided it sounds like the benefit of the covenant is with the vendor (whoever that was at the time) so you will need to speak with them in the first instance about getting it amended

Sorry not sure what you mean there? Is the vendor not barrets?

[NGee]

richienotrich said:

Hi all,

. I'm just not sure if I contact Redrow or Barratt Homes for this. Also do i email their legal department or customer services?

It's B&Q you need to contact. Just do it.

[quinny100]

Is the property freehold?

Is there an estate management company?

If the answer to both of those is no, I’d just change the door.

Volume housebuilders have absolutely no interest in estates once they’ve completed the development. If there is a freeholder or management company they may be able to enforce the covenant and might have more interest in doing so.

[Red9zero]

I'd always assumed the covenant was only ever enforced while the developers were still on site selling houses. Certainly seems the case on our estate anyhow as most have been breached by now. We definately no longer have a tree in our front garden that probably should be there.

[Gary C]

Red9zero said:

I'd always assumed the covenant was only ever enforced while the developers were still on site selling houses. Certainly seems the case on our estate anyhow as most have been breached by now. We definately no longer have a tree in our front garden that probably should be there.

About to say the same

Ours has a covenant on not paving over the front garden and not allowed to have a caravan to dissuade the more, err, mobile of our local community from buying a house and putting off other buyers.

But once the developer is off site, they have no interest in enforcing a covenant.

[K4sper]

richatnort said:

K4sper said:

from the truncated extract you provided it sounds like the benefit of the covenant is with the vendor (whoever that was at the time) so you will need to speak with them in the first instance about getting it amended

Sorry not sure what you mean there? Is the vendor not barrets?

It is Leeds Community and Mental Health Services Teaching National Health Service Trust as the 'Vendor' under the Transfer Deed dated 28/01/98, which is the document which contains the covenant.

Might inform your thinking about whether it is worth asking for it to be amended / removed...

[richienotrich]

Thanks all, i ended up getting in touch with Barrattts who think this is their covenant which they are looking into for me.

Will cost £120 to get the change done but thinking its worth it as to get a new garage door in the current colour costs £200 extra so I can go for their basic colours and save myself £80

[cpszx]

The covenants on mine relating to front garden, door colours, windows, permission to erect a shed, etc, had a 5 year lifespan which was detailed along with those covenants. Have you checked for that?

The developer explained that most of them were related to the planning approvals at the time, not just for keeping consistent image for ongoing sales.

[richienotrich]

cpszx said:

The covenants on mine relating to front garden, door colours, windows, permission to erect a shed, etc, had a 5 year lifespan which was detailed along with those covenants. Have you checked for that?

The developer explained that most of them were related to the planning approvals at the time, not just for keeping consistent image for ongoing sales.

Yeh unfortunately it doesn't say a time frame on it at all.

[NWMark]

richienotrich said:

Thanks all, i ended up getting in touch with Barrattts who think this is their covenant which they are looking into for me.

Will cost £120 to get the change done but thinking its worth it as to get a new garage door in the current colour costs £200 extra so I can go for their basic colours and save myself £80

Or change the garage door regardless and save £200

[surveyor]

NWMark said:

richienotrich said:

Thanks all, i ended up getting in touch with Barrattts who think this is their covenant which they are looking into for me.

Will cost £120 to get the change done but thinking its worth it as to get a new garage door in the current colour costs £200 extra so I can go for their basic colours and save myself £80

Or change the garage door regardless and save £200

Not advice I would be paid for, but if it were my door and lots of other people had done it, I would change it, and if it became an issue apply for consent.

Mind £120 is cheap, possibly cheaper than the indemnity policy that you might have to pay for when selling up.

[richatnort]

surveyor said:

Not advice I would be paid for, but if it were my door and lots of other people had done it, I would change it, and if it became an issue apply for consent.

Mind £120 is cheap, possibly cheaper than the indemnity policy that you might have to pay for when selling up.

The thing is most have stayed for the colours but ours is green and theirs are either red, blue or white so not as bad colours

[Mr Miata]

Tell them you went away for the weekend and when you got back home, you found some chav youths had repainted your garage door.

"It wasnt like that when I saw it last"

It'll be hard to prove who done it.

[Dan_The_Man]

NWMark said:

Or change the garage door regardless and save £200

This, no one will care.

[anonymous-user]

OP, could you please keep this thread updated at every step? That way we will be able to see the arc of the covenant.

[Fish]

It is a positive covenant which if with Barretts wanted to enforce would need to show loss, as they no longer have an interest in the site they would not really be able to do so. They also frankly couldn't give two sts and won't want to spend money on it..

Change your door and sleep at night.

We put similar covenants in and even when people breach them when we are still on site we would still struggle to enforce and wouldn't want to spend thousands with lawyers anyway...

[konark]

Paint them red , if they get arsey tell them you're colourblind.

Honestly, no one will care once the last house on the estate is sold.