Restrictive Covenants: What to Check Before Buying a House

If a property has a restrictive covenant, obtain the underlying wording and ask your conveyancer how it affects the way you intend to use the home. The fact that a covenant exists does not explain its practical effect, and its age does not establish that it can be ignored. This guide helps buyers in England and Wales prepare a useful title enquiry.

Start with the plans that influenced your offer. Perhaps you want a rear extension, a garden office, different windows or a garage conversion. Write them down before the title report arrives. A broad assurance about a property being freehold cannot answer whether a particular obligation affects your project.

Find the deed behind the register entry

HM Land Registry’s covenant explanation describes an agreement in which an owner promises not to carry out a specified act on defined land. Such obligations can remain relevant after ownership changes. The exact wording and land affected matter; an informal description such as “standard covenants” leaves too much unexplained.

1. Locate the covenant entry in the title register and note the date and description of the referenced document.
2. Ask the conveyancer to obtain the relevant deed and any plan, rather than relying on the register’s short reference.
3. Identify which land and activities the wording concerns. Include any later release, consent or variation in the document set.
4. Ask for a plain-language explanation linked to your actual plans and to any existing alterations.

Our guide to reading a title register and plan explains how to organise that document trail. Keep each deed with its plan and title number so a discussion about the house does not accidentally overlook a separate garage or garden parcel.

Do not mix up different title entries

A restrictive covenant concerns an obligation not to do something. Positive obligations concern doing something, such as work or expenditure. A title restriction is another concept, addressing registration requirements. Ask the conveyancer to distinguish the entries in your own title rather than treating every use of “restriction” as the same problem.

HMLR changed the wording it uses for some positive and indemnity covenant entries in November 2024. An entry may point to a filed deed without spelling out every obligation. That is another reason to read the source documents instead of inferring meaning from the length or familiarity of the register entry.

Planning permission is a separate enquiry

Checking the council’s planning file is useful, but it does not answer every private-title question. When an extension is central to your decision, create separate lines in your research file for planning, building regulations and covenant review. Ask each responsible professional what their answer establishes and what remains outside it.

Use our planning-history guide to collect the public planning documents. Then give the conveyancer the proposed work, the title documents and any seller-supplied consent relating to a covenant. Keeping those records alongside one another makes inconsistencies easier to identify without assuming one approval resolves everything.

Worked example: the extension that makes the purchase work

Imagine buying a two-bedroom house because you expect to extend it. The agent points to a neighbouring extension and the register refers to a historic building covenant. Neither observation tells you whether your own scheme is acceptable under your title.

Write a brief description of the proposed size and position, even if you do not yet have architectural drawings. Ask the conveyancer to explain whether the covenant affects that proposal and what further information or consent may be needed. Ask the planning professional separately about planning feasibility. If the purchase only works for you with the extension, make those unresolved questions visible in your decision rather than budgeting as though approval is established.

What if a covenant needs changing?

The HMCTS guide to restrictive covenants explains an application route to the Upper Tribunal for discharge or modification under section 84. It also explains limits: that route does not give the tribunal power to remove positive covenants or easements. A possible application is not a guaranteed outcome.

Before approaching anyone about a release or consent, discuss the appropriate route with your conveyancer. Ask who may have the benefit, what evidence is missing, the likely steps and what a proposed solution would actually cover. Where insurance is suggested, request an explanation of its terms and limits rather than treating a policy as permission to carry out work.

• Keep the exact covenant wording and plans with the report on title.
• Get an answer about the uses that matter to you, including existing alterations.
• Distinguish a resolved issue from an option that still needs agreement or investigation.
• Update your budget and project assumptions when the documented position changes.
• Retain any consent or variation supplied during the purchase for future use.

Frequently asked questions