Property No 5 - Restrictive Covenants No 2 - "Estate" or "Building" Covenants

Restrictive covenants are a complex subject in law and estate practice - it is prudent to know about them and, in particular, whether any affect your property or a property you intend to purchase/sell, redevelop/ adapt, occupy/let, etc. Furthermore, you would probably need the advice of a solicitor and/or professional surveyor in dealing with any restrictive covenant problem which may arise.

Restrictive covenants are often one-off in the sense that they apply between one property and a second property. Post No 1 gave an example of this type. Another type of restrictive covenant applies as a "building" covenant", "development covenant", or "estate covenant". The names refer to the same type of covenant.

With a building covenant the developer-owner of say, a housing estate, imposes one or more restrictive covenants with the intention of binding the vendors of each house. The intention is that upon a breach of covenant(s) by a vendor,  the developer-owner may enforce the covenant(s) in respect of any retained property and that each vendor may enforce any covenant(s) against another vendor.  Should any vendor's successor in title breach covenant(s) it is also intended that the covenants are enforcable against that successor in title.

Finally, the restrictive covenant is be mutually enforcable: if the developer-owner should breach covenant(s) any vendor (or successor) may take action to enforce the covenant(s).