Turning Constraints Into Advantages: A UK Buyer’s Approach To Covenants

When purchasing property in the UK, restrictive covenants can seem like deal-breaking constraints for eager buyers. Covenants represent legally binding usage rules recorded on title deeds. While daunting initially, savvy buyers can evaluate covenants strategically to negotiate advantages. In this guide, we’ll provide UK property buyers with education on overcoming covenants. We’ll outline covenant identification, analysis, workaround tactics, specialist resources, and even removal methods. With diligence and creativity, restrictive covenants morph from deterrents into opportunities allowing buyers to turn the limitations into leverage.

Understanding Property Covenants

A restrictive covenant refers to a clause governing how a property can be used and developed, recorded on the property’s title deed. Covenants represent legally binding obligations that transfer to future owners. Common UK covenants include:

Primary residence covenants – Requiring a property be owner-occupied, not a rental investment.
Building covenants – Limiting extensions, outbuildings, fencing, and exterior changes.
User covenants – Restricting commercial usage of a residential property.
Time limit covenants – Expiring after a set period.
Freeholder covenants – For leasehold flats, dictating conduct, maintenance fees.

While constraining, educated buyers can strategise around covenants.

How Covenants Are Imposed On Properties

Covenants typically originate when property developments occur, as:

Planning conditions – Local authorities mandate covenants limiting usage as a condition of granting development rights. This ensures residential amenities or characters are preserved.
Freeholder requirements – For leasehold flats, the freeholder imposes conduct conditions through covenants on property titles they hold.
Existing co-property owners – Groups of landowners collectively establish covenants when subdividing larger sites into individually owned plots.
Private former transfer requirements – Prior owners historically attached restrictive covenants upon sale. Some prove outdated.

Recognising the source aids strategies for relaxing rigid covenants.

Identifying Covenants Before Purchase

Buyers routinely discover property covenants when conveyancers review title deeds during transactions. However, wise buyers seek covenant specifics early when viewing properties:

Review particulars listing – Agents often summarise notable covenants impacting suitability.
Do online title searches – The £3 Land Registry proprietor search lists covenants.
Read planning history – Development approvals detail usage conditions set.
Request title deed copies – Sellers can provide the definitive covenant source.
Ask neighbours – Local awareness offers perspective on enforcement.

Forewarned is forearmed when developing workaround strategies.

Primary Residence Covenants

A common covenant specifies the property must be the owner’s sole or primary residence, not a buy-to-let investment. This aims to maintain suitable local housing mixes. Buyers should:

Weigh if intending to personally occupy full-time before purchase. Breaching covenant risks enforcement.
Seek mortgage approvals requiring primary occupancy, and ensure plans align.
Consider negotiating a discounted purchase price given the usage limits imposed.
Investigate the potential for covenant removal if intentions differ long-term.

Both buyer habits and ambitions should accommodate residency covenants.

Building & Extension Covenants

Covenants may prohibit or strictly govern structural changes like extensions, outbuildings, fencing and other exterior works. Savvy buyers can:

Detail proposed plans to determine if permissible or require modification.
Explore flexible workarounds still enhancing the property under covenant guidelines.
Determine if enough local precedent exists to seek a variance for needed works through planning applications.
Identify potential scope to repeal historic covenants if imposed arbitrarily.

Creative design adaptations bring enhancements without breaching covenants.

User Covenants On Commercial Properties

When purchasing commercially zoned buildings, user covenants may limit business operations and redevelopment. Smart buyers respond by:

Consulting the local authority on permissible usage options given zoning and covenants.
Seeking creative adaptive reuse strategies aligning with imposed activity limitations.
Negotiating discounted acquisition costs reflecting detriments of usage kerbs.
Hiring specialists to formally modify restrictive commercial covenants impeding viability.

Reviewing intended usage against covenants ensures property suitability.

Leasehold Covenants By Freeholders

For residential flats, leasehold covenants set by freeholders dictate management, conduct and maintenance policies. Wise flat buyers should:

Review covenants in detail before purchasing. Burdensome or costly obligations affect affordability.
Query ambiguous covenants when viewing and seeking examples of enforcement.
Ensure their intended occupancy abides by behavioural covenants.
Verify service charges align with covenant maintenance and amenity requirements.
Enquire about modifying or removing outdated legacy leasehold covenants.

Informed buyers gauge impacts of freeholder-imposed covenants pre-purchase.

Time Limit Covenants

Some covenants indicate they expire after a set duration, for example, 50 years. This provides flexibility to adapt the property long-term. Buyers should:

Note carefully when time-limited covenants lapse.
Diarise expiration dates.
Consider if the time horizon matches their intentions before purchase.

Temporary covenants give future options, provided expiration details are clear.

Engaging Specialists To Interpret Covenants

Given their complexity, engaging experts often assists buyers in deciphering covenant implications:

Property solicitors provide legal guidance on covenant meanings, enforceability, and flexibility.
Architects assess which proposed structural works are permitted under restrictive building covenants.
Surveyors identify where covenants limit property alteration potential.
Planning consultants determine where local authorities permit a variance from covenants under certain conditions.
Covenant lawyers advise on repeal or modification feasibility where covenants prove problematic.

Specialist advice tailored to the property provides options and prevents missteps.

Approaching Restrictive Covenants Strategically

When restrictive covenants apply, savvy buyers respond strategically:

Seek to understand the motivation and context behind imposition before dismissing the property.
Visualise workarounds fulfilling their needs while technically adhering to covenant limitations.
Hire specialists to identify flexibility and ensure they interpret covenants correctly.
Use covenants to negotiate discounts arguing the restrictions lower value.
Plan modifications or repeal long-term if covenants prove unworkable.

With the right approach, restrictive covenants become manageable and even malleable.

Negotiation Considerations Around Covenants

When covenants impose undesirable restrictions, buyers can leverage them by:

Highlighting covenant risks if their vision for the property differs.
Quantifying the negative value impacts of usage limits.
Securing purchase price reductions given diminished marketability with covenants.
Making conditional offers reliant on at least partial covenant repeal.
Requiring sellers to obtain covenant modifications before completion.

Settlement conditions apply pressure on sellers to resolve covenant constraints.

Tips For Covenant Workarounds

For residential properties, buyers work within covenants by:

Opting for sympathetic interior layouts and arrangements without exterior changes.
Enhancing aesthetics through approved landscaping, lighting, and fencing solutions.
Using creative extensions of permitted structures like basements and attics.
Adding temporary accommodations like sheds that can be removed in future.
Mapping future phased enhancements once covenants lapse.

Where covenants can’t be changed, they can often be cleverly and patiently worked around.

Avoiding Breaches Through Careful Planning

Breaching property covenants risks enforcement action and costs, so buyers take preventative measures:

Review covenants thoroughly with solicitors to identify acceptable parameters before making changes.
Have architects detail plans and get approvals before commencing building works, however minor.
Seek consent from local authorities and affected parties like freeholders well in advance.
Avoid works unless certain they fall within interpreted covenant guidelines.
Stop immediately if authorities raise breach concerns and amend plans.

Proactive compliance keeps buyers on the right side of covenants.

Options For Removing Problematic Covenants

If inherited covenants prove unworkable, buyers investigate potential removal avenues:

Apply to Lands Tribunal to discharge covenants shown to be useless, obsolete or impeding reasonable enjoyment of property rights.
Request covenant modifications from beneficiaries – local authorities, trustees, landlords, management companies or whoever imposed the covenant.
Utilise deed of variation to change covenant by agreement with other liable parties.
For covenants imposed before 1994, seek a Lands Tribunal determination the covenant does not touch and concern the benefited land.
Explore whether the covenantee has lost the right to enforce through prolonged inaction.

While challenging, unwanted covenants can sometimes be discharged or modified. Specialist solicitors will advise on prospects.

How Property Developers Approach Covenants

When evaluating development sites, property developers commonly:

Model the achievable development and unit mix allowed under existing covenants.
Calculate potential value uplift if covenants are repealed in future.
Make acquisitions conditional on overturning commercially unviable covenants.
Allocate budget contingencies to fund applications to remove restrictive covenants pre-development.
Phase projects allowing leisurely covenant repeal efforts over time.

Through patience and resources, developers strategically transform restricted sites into prime opportunities.

How Covenants Can Benefit Buyers

While restrictive, covenants also provide advantages buyers appreciate:

Maintaining local character – by limiting overdevelopment and unsuitable usage.
Controlling neighbourhood change – through gradual considered evolution rather than disjointed projects.
Preserving heritage architecture – by restricting alterations diminishing period visual appeal.
Environmental protections – by retaining green spaces and features.
Community spirit – through shared guidelines bringing uniformity.

Viewed positively, covenants ensure continuity and identity.

Advice For First-Time Buyers On Covenants

For first-timers, the priority is understanding if a covenant aligns with their near-term intended usage before purchase.

Determine your plans – Will you live in the home or rent it out? Renovate now or later?
Assess covenant details – Do your plans breach any usage, improvement or behavioural covenants?
Consider workarounds – How could your vision adapt to stay within covenant boundaries?
Estimate modification prospects – If covenants prove unworkable long-term, what removal options exist?

Ensuring the property suits immediate and future aspirations is crucial for newcomers.

Partnering With Developers To Repeal Covenants

Where covenants seriously impede alternative valuables uses, teaming with an experienced developer can provide covenant repeal solutions by:

Contributing professional expertise navigating legal repeal processes.
Funding lump sums are required for applications, evidence and approvals.
Removing covenants upfront so the property is unrestricted before works commence.
Securing planning permissions aligned with intended property usages.

Their know-how can help overcome legacy covenant constraints.

Conclusion

When confronted with restrictive property covenants, it’s natural to feel apprehensive, but savvy buyers can overcome these challenges by approaching them strategically. Instead of viewing covenants as insurmountable problems, consider them as puzzles waiting to be solved. To navigate these constraints effectively, it’s crucial to begin with a foundation of due diligence, specialised guidance, and calculated negotiations. This process is all about figuring out “how to get around restrictive covenants.”

One key aspect is determining the feasibility of repealing the covenants. This can involve patience and allocation of resources, but the removal of restrictive covenants can significantly unlock a property’s potential. However, it’s essential to realise that not all solutions are as complex as repealing covenants. Sometimes, workable alternatives only require a bit of vision and flexibility, allowing buyers to adapt to the constraints and make the most of the situation. Emotions should be set aside in this process, and challenges can be turned to the buyer’s advantage.

In summary, property covenants establish binding usage rules, which buyers must analyse logically, envision potential workarounds, and assess the impacts. Conveyancers can interpret the legal aspects, while strategic negotiations can leverage these constraints to secure price reductions. Creative solutions are often effective in preventing covenant breaches, but in the most challenging cases, pursuing the repeal of covenants may be the solution. With the right mindset and strategic approach, restrictive covenants become manageable obstacles for savvy buyers who seek to maximise the potential of their property investments. So, when wondering “how to get around restrictive covenants,” remember that with the right strategy, challenges can be turned into opportunities.