A restrictive covenant is a binding legal promise written into a property’s title that limits what future owners can do with the land. They run with the property — they apply to whoever owns it, not just the person who originally made the promise — and they can be enforceable decades or centuries after they were created.
If you’re buying, selling, or thinking of altering a property, restrictive covenants are something your solicitor checks as part of conveyancing.
Common types of restrictive covenant
The variety is enormous, but common examples include:
- No commercial use — property must remain residential only.
- No subdivision — prohibiting splitting a plot into multiple houses.
- No alterations without freeholder consent — common on leasehold properties and some newer estates.
- No building within X metres of a boundary — protecting neighbour sightlines or gardens.
- No caravans, trailers, or commercial vehicles parked on driveways.
- No keeping livestock or specific types of pet.
- Estate rules — paint colours, fencing types, satellite dishes, plant types, clothes lines.
- No buildings above a certain height.
- Rights of way preserved for neighbours, farmers, or the original landowner.
- Historic restrictions tied to mineral rights, shooting rights, or manorial rights from when the land was first sold.
Victorian-era residential developments often have extensive covenants — typical conditions include “no trade or business”, “no beer shop”, “no manufactory”. Modern estate developments frequently impose their own scheme of covenants to maintain visual coherence.
How to find out what covenants apply
Covenants appear in the Land Registry title register (or, for older land, in the pre-registration deeds). Your solicitor reviews these during conveyancing and highlights any that affect you or your intended use.
Some covenants are clear and unambiguous. Others are historic, ambiguous, or arguably unenforceable — which is a specialist legal question.
Are restrictive covenants enforceable?
It depends on:
- Whether there’s a “person entitled to benefit” — someone whose land the covenant was designed to protect.
- Whether they’re willing and able to enforce it — individuals, estates, or successors-in-title.
- Whether the covenant is still reasonable — some historic covenants may be unenforceable because the conditions they anticipate no longer exist.
In practice, many historic covenants are rarely enforced — but “rarely” is not “never”, and a breach can lead to injunctions, forced reinstatement, or damages.
Indemnity insurance
Where a covenant is old, ambiguous, or where the beneficiary is unknown or untraceable, restrictive covenant indemnity insurance is often used. It’s a one-off premium (typically £50–£500 depending on scope) that protects the buyer against a future enforcement claim. Many buyers’ solicitors accept indemnity insurance in lieu of actually resolving a covenant dispute.
Modifying or removing a covenant
Three routes exist:
- Negotiation with the party entitled to benefit — agreeing to release or modify the covenant, usually for a payment.
- Lands Tribunal application (section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925) — a formal process to have a covenant modified or discharged on specified legal grounds. Slow and expensive.
- Indemnity insurance — doesn’t remove the covenant but covers the risk of breach.
Covenants and cash sales
If a property has an active or ambiguous restrictive covenant that’s preventing a mortgaged sale, a cash buyer is often a faster route. At RPJ, we regularly buy properties with historic covenants — we accept the property with its title as-is, factor any relevant risk into our written offer, and can complete in days rather than the months it might take to resolve via indemnity insurance or tribunal.
Related
- Conveyancing — where covenants surface during the sale.
- TA6 form — seller disclosure that often references known covenants.
- Leasehold vs freehold — leasehold properties have covenants in both the lease and the title.