Wish

iTrader: (2)

On my deeds I have a covenant that doesnt allow anything over 1mtr high ie Gate or Fences over my front garden.
We want to put up 1.5mtr gates (adjacent to the highway)so I thought we would need planning permission, but Ive been told that is not required and i need the conversant removed??

How is this done, if its not through planning.

I can erect the gates away from the highway to 2mts, but cant find out what is classed adjacent to the highway and whats not ??

Im sure its a calculation using the distance from the highway to the house which at the shortest point is 44 mts
Our local council is Canterbury Kent Council

HELP !!!

Lee247

I don't think you can change deeds. I wanted something removed from ours and was told I couldn't as we had signed.

Way over my head, Milamber is your man

mart360

From what i recall when we looked at a covenanted(sp) property,

you have to have the covenant removed by the original instigator/s ok if

there alive, a nightmare if there not.


We had a covenant placed on land adjacent to the house we were looking

at buying (it was part of the overall plot)

The original builder had placed a covenant on it, that they were to be paid

a percentage of the land worth before any building work was carried out.

Nice little earner for them, a nightmare for us, we declined the sale.


Someone eventually bought the property and did build another house on

the adjacent plot. they obviously thought it worthwhile


Mart

boxst

Or you can just ignore the convenant and then get it removed afterwards.

I live in a large plot with just two houses and the deeds say no fences between them. My neighbours did it anyway (they asked me first) and then retrospectively applied for planning permission which overrode the convenant.

Steve

Wish

iTrader: (2)

This was my understanding ...But Ive been told that planning does cannot override a covenant ???

Leslie

If you put up those gates which don't need PP, who would make you remove them under the terms of the covenent?

Les

pacenote

Dealing with the covenant:

1. You could contact the covenant holder so you can try and obtain consent. The land registry/deeds should have details of who this is.

2. If you can't or don't want to contact the covenant holder you could try and obtain indemnity insurance before starting your work to protect yourself should the covenant holder decide to take action against your breach of covenant. The insurance policies are generally pretty cheap, depending on how recent the covenant is etc...

3. Another option is to apply to the Lands Tribunal which can alter or remove restrictive covenants. However, this is costly and time consuming.

If say you have a footpath infront of your property and you cross this when pulling onto your drive, if you erected your gates immediately behind the footpath ( where your drive starts ) that would be classed as "adjacent to the highway " If you erected your gates say 4m from back of footpath then this would not (IMO)
If there is no footpath there may still be a service strip which would still be classified as highway or it may be that the highway ends at the back of kerbline. Your deeds should help here.

HTH

Wish

iTrader: (2)

This 4m distance you quote. Is this the actual figures that class as away from a highway ?

??

David Lock

Unless the new gates look out of place then I would just get on with it. Life's too short to **** around with silly paperwork. No one will ever notice and if you ever had to take them down it wouldn't be the end of the world.

dl

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Automated gates ... they are not cheap but hear what you are saying

pacenote

Give me some more info please, is there a footpath as I described, are you building a new wall/fence then installing the gates. I am back in the office Monday and I will be able give you some further advice.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Thank you that would be great


There is no footpath in front of my house, there is a 4 ft gap (brick paved) that holds the water meters in front of my drive.
The road outside my house is also brick paved leading down the road to tarmac and pavements (800meters away). My road is a dead end road cul-de-sac

There is a low hedge runs alongside my garden at the front adopted and maintained by the council, we have planted Loral to grow behind this on our garden.
We are planning to fit 1.5m (5ftat the tallest point) Automated Gates with a 12ft span



Tonight we are told that the highway could end at the tarmac and pavement and the brick pave is not classed as highway. As the pavement stops, and surface changes, and is classed as common right of way leading to our houses ?

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Looking down the drive towards the road way





At the bottom of my drive looking up. I dont own the brick paving, but the tarmac is my drive.

MattW

Wish, surely it'd be easier to stick them where the shadow falls across, that gives you space to pull up before opening the gates.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Blue = Tarmac and paths finishing, hight change and brick paved area
Red = Boundary
White = Tarmac driveway surface leading to double garage

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Sorry I cant get the picture any better but this is the best google earth will do

RED = Entrance to my Road
YELLOW = Surface change
Green A = Shared Drive Way serving 4 houses (this is where I get the traffic up my drive as drivers always miss this S.D)
Green B = Shared Drive Way next to mine serving 4 houses
White H = My House

MattW

I sthe yellow bit adopted Wish, if so it's definitely highway.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Yes its adopted by the council, But someone on the estate has mention "common right of way"

But I really dont know......
Its amazing the amount of people that say "just put them up" I didnt think that would have been the case this day and age

Thanks for all the help, keep it coming !

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

do you have street lamps down your drive ?

Shaun

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Not down my drive, but there are street lamps on the road way outside my house

Lee247

Yes, there is always some ***** who will report you. It is there aim in life to be awkward.

Wish, looks lovely where you live Please let me know how you get on, as I would love to have a covenant removed from our deeds. The bloke who placed it is still alive and we thought that when he sold, it would end. We thought we were agreeing to only him, and when he moved on it was gone. But he was a Solicitor and it looks like the fruitloop we now have living near us, thinks he has the same rights.
We own our drive, outright, but allowed the previous owner, passage over the drive if needed, to access his fields. Fruitloop thinks he has access on our drive whenever is suits him, and it is doing my head in.
He is the most awkward, miserable individual you could ever meet. I would love to tell him to get stuffed, but need to make sure I have things correct, first

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Are you sure the Yellow area is adopted.........the council hate paved roadways as the bin lorries chew them up. Where do you leave your rubbish ?

Shaun

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Will do Lee ....

Midlife we leave our bins at the bottom of our drive on the opposite of the road along with the people in the shared drive way

pacenote

The picture confirms to me that the highway ends at the extent of the brick pavings/concrete edging strip ( where your tarmac starts ). In order to ascertain what would be the minimum distance you could get away with so that your gates where "away from the highway " you should visit your council planning department and ask the duty planning officer.
Alternatively as you appear to have a reasonable length of drive you could erect your gates a cars length from the start of your drive so you can pull off the highway before opening the gates. In this instance I am sure that the position of your gates would be okay.

Looking at the aerial photo the estate looks fairly new so I would imagine that the developer has put in place the covenant the you mention.

HTH

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for that ... I will call the duty planning officer tomorrow.

The estate is 14yrs old and was built by Wards. Ive been told today that i is pretty unlikely that they will take any action.

richardg

i haven't read all of the earlier replies, but....

1. covenants are legal matters - planning matters are not always directly related to covenants. they are two different things.

2. general development rights under the town and country planning acts refer to the erection of gates within a certain distance of the public highway - "adjacent to" from memory, ie right next to. you need to ask the local highways authority whether the block paved area is adopted or not (ie whether it is in fact highway land). this will deal with the planning side of things. more info on GDO rights relating to walls and fences here - Fences and Walls

3. the covenant is probably there to stop people closing in the frontages of their properties - the developer will have applied the convenant in order to maintain some level of uniformity in appearance on the development. they are not likely to remove this as this would/could create a precedent which would only lead to hassle from their point of view, regardless of whether it's enforceable etc etc. i would speak to countrywide legal indemnities in norwich, or someone like that about restrictive covenant insurance if i were you (you'll need to your title information and as much detail as you can before they will give you a quote).

4. if the block paved area is not adopted, then it will be owned by someone, or although less likely as only 14 yrs ago, will be divided into sections owned by all the users. as users will have a common right of way, they will have a common obligation to maintain - if you have no obligation in your title to contribute towards maintainance, then it is unlikely this is a private road (in any case, rights under your title will be shown in the narrative and on your title plan).

5. if i were you and i decided to put the gates up, i would leave say 4-6m from the back edge of the block paving so that you have somewhere to pull off the paving in front of the gates (as pacenote says)

HTH

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for that ...

This morning I had a woman in a Landrover Disco up or drive she then revesed down the drive removing a whole section of the new hedge we had planted. My Neighbor then came out and apologised as she was visiting her.. So when I speak to her about why I need gates she will now understand.


Thanks again for all the replies

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Spoken to the council .. I have to be 2 meters away from the highway.
So 2mts it is !

Also as long as the hedge is planned under a meter tall, this is all the covenent is requires. So a hedge can be planted adjacent to a highway


So looks like im going to be ok to move forward with the project

Leslie

That is why I asked earlier who would be likely to enforce the covenant. If it was done 14 years ago I would have thought they would have lost interest and the only risk would be of a neighbour reporting you. You could clear it with the neighbours before doing the business.

Les

ben wrx

iTrader: (1)

Ive not read all the replies in detail, however as this is a height issue, I believe that it could be related to vision. You should be able to see when exiting your driveway from a min height of 1m. The 4m distance will also relate to the vision. ie 4m from the edge of blockwork up your driveway at a height of 1m there should be clear vision to the left and right for the safety of existing vehicles.

It may not relate to this, but all new access onto adopted highway have to meet vision requirements set out by the local authority.