Restrictive covenants are promises written into the deeds that limit what an owner can do with the land. Most UK properties have at least one, and most are harmless. “No caravans on the front garden” and “no trade or business from the premises” rarely trouble anyone. The problems start when a covenant has been breached, when it stops a buyer doing what they want with the property, or when it’s so old and oddly worded that nobody can say whether it still applies. Any of those can slow a sale down considerably once the buyer’s solicitor reads the title. This guide takes you through the process from identifying your covenants to completing a sale, including what to do when a breach is already baked into the property.
Step One: Find Out What Covenants You Have
Your covenants are in the charges register of your title at the Land Registry, or in the original conveyance if the property is unregistered. Download the official copies, read the charges register, and note any document it refers to, because older covenants are often held in a separate deed that the Land Registry may or may not have a copy of.
Covenants commonly found on residential titles include restrictions on:
- Building extensions, outbuildings or additional dwellings without the consent of a named party
- Using the property for business, trade or as more than a single private dwelling
- Keeping animals, livestock or commercial vehicles
- Altering the external appearance, including the front elevation, fences and boundary walls
- Selling alcohol, or in older deeds, operating a public house
- Parking caravans, boats or trailers in view of the road
Make a list, note the date of each covenant and who had the benefit of it, and you’ve done the groundwork for everything that follows.
Step Two: Check Whether Any Have Been Breached
Walk round the property with the list. If there’s an extension and a covenant against building without consent, was consent obtained? If someone’s running a business from the garage and there’s a covenant against trade, that’s a breach. If the front garden has been paved for parking and a covenant requires it to be kept as a garden, same again.
A breach doesn’t become lawful with time in the way a planning breach does, but the practical risk falls as the years pass. A covenant breached twenty years ago with no complaint is unlikely to be enforced now. One breached last year by you is a different matter.
Step Three: Work Out Whether The Covenant Still Bites
Old covenants often can’t be enforced, for reasons a solicitor can assess:
- The person with the benefit can’t be identified. A covenant made for the benefit of a Victorian landowner whose estate was broken up decades ago may have nobody left to enforce it.
- The covenant doesn’t touch and concern the land. Some covenants were personal to the original parties and never ran with the land at all.
- The character of the area has changed. A covenant restricting use to a single dwelling in a street now full of flats is unlikely to be upheld.
- The wording is unclear. Courts construe ambiguous covenants narrowly.
A solicitor’s written opinion on enforceability is worth obtaining if a covenant is causing concern, because buyers’ solicitors will raise the same points and an answer already on file keeps things moving.
Step Four: Choose A Fix For Problem Covenants
Where a covenant is enforceable and either breached or likely to obstruct the buyer’s plans, you have four options.
Indemnity Insurance
A one-off policy covering the buyer and their lender against loss if the covenant is enforced. It’s cheap, quick, and solves the majority of covenant problems in conveyancing. Insurers won’t cover a breach where the person with the benefit has already complained, and the policy must be in place before anyone contacts them, so don’t approach the beneficiary first.
Consent Or Release From The Beneficiary
Where the beneficiary can be identified, you can ask them to consent to the breach or release the covenant entirely, usually for a payment. This is clean but can be slow, and once you’ve asked, indemnity insurance is no longer available if they refuse.
Application To The Upper Tribunal
The Lands Chamber can modify or discharge covenants that are obsolete, that impede reasonable use of the land without securing practical benefit, or where the beneficiary agrees. It’s a formal process taking many months and costing several thousand pounds, so it’s rarely worth it for a sale.
Sell With The Covenant As It Stands
Disclose the covenant and any breach, let the buyer decide how to handle it, and price accordingly.
Step Five: Sell Through The Right Route
Open Market
Most covenant issues resolve with indemnity insurance and don’t trouble an open market sale. The difficulties arise where insurance isn’t available, where the breach is recent and visible, or where the buyer’s intended use is exactly what the covenant forbids. In those cases, expect lenders to hesitate and buyers to seek reductions.
Cash Buyer
Where the covenant problem can’t be insured or resolved quickly, a cash buyer who assesses the risk directly is the practical option. If you’re looking to sell a house with a breached restrictive covenant without waiting on a beneficiary or a tribunal, we’ll have our solicitors review the title, take a view on enforceability, and make an offer within 24 hours that reflects it. We cover the survey, the legal fees and the EPC, our offers fall between 70% and 85% of market value, and we buy across England and Wales. Any insurance, consent or tribunal application after completion is ours to arrange.
Step Six: Disclose Properly
The property information form asks about alterations and whether consents were obtained, and about any disputes or notices. A known breach of covenant must be disclosed, and the covenants themselves are visible on the title regardless. Failing to mention a breach you knew about can give the buyer a misrepresentation claim later. If you’ve obtained a solicitor’s opinion, indemnity quote or consent, include them in the contract pack, because they answer the buyer’s questions before they’re asked.
How Covenants Affect The Price
Most covenants have no effect at all. A breach covered by inexpensive indemnity insurance has very little. The price moves when a covenant restricts something valuable, such as the right to extend or to split the property into flats, or when a breach carries a real risk of enforcement because the beneficiary is a neighbour who’s already objected. In those cases the discount reflects the cost of putting things right or the lost potential. Having the title, the covenant documents and a solicitor’s view on enforceability ready before you market the property keeps buyers from assuming the worst, which is where most of the avoidable losses come from.
FAQs
What is a restrictive covenant on a property?
A promise in the title deeds that restricts how the land can be used, binding current and future owners. Common examples limit building, business use, animals and external alterations.
Can you sell a house with a breached restrictive covenant?
Yes. The breach must be disclosed, and the usual fix is indemnity insurance for the buyer. Where insurance isn’t available, cash buyers will purchase with the breach in place and price in the risk.
Does indemnity insurance fix a breach of covenant?
It doesn’t remove the breach, but it covers the buyer and their lender against financial loss if the covenant is enforced. It’s only available where the beneficiary hasn’t been contacted or complained.
Can a restrictive covenant be removed?
Yes, by agreement with the beneficiary or by application to the Upper Tribunal, which can modify or discharge obsolete or obstructive covenants. Both routes take time and cost money.
Who enforces a restrictive covenant?
The owner of the land that has the benefit of it, which is often a neighbour or the successor to the original developer. If nobody with the benefit can be identified, enforcement is unlikely.
Will a mortgage lender lend on a property with a breached covenant?
Usually, provided indemnity insurance is in place. Where insurance isn’t available and the breach is significant, some lenders decline, which is when a cash sale becomes the simpler route.