[Closed] Covenant on front garden take two

Try the search function. There's already been a thread on this today.

As per previous thread, speak to the council ..

I may have to 😂.

I don’t want to know the councils opinion, I want to know what I can get away with through law.

Milk no sugar and some of those yummy ginger nuts please. 😃

I’ll have some of them ginger nuts too....unless there’s nun left 😉

Covenant you say? In that case (as per the other thread) you blow and I’ll do the fingering.

I don’t want to know the councils opinion, I want to know what I can get away with through law.

By "through law" do you mean ending up in court with lawyers arguing about the definition?

If you want to save the potential hassle and time I would suggest asking the council first.

Or ask a lawyer although I would suspect their advice would end up being the same.

IIRC, fence is not defined in legislation, and the Courts tend to give it a pretty broad interpretation to mean anything that encloses property or separates contiguous ones. Therefore your putative hedge will undoubtedly breach the covenant if it gets tested in court.

If any of your neighbours have enclosed their front garden, it may give an indication of how the council will respond if you ask. Obviously you could just plant away and then update us later if you get a nasty-o-gram from the council.

Start with a flower border, then move on to small shrubs. Over the course of a few years you can sneak in a privet or two. If anyone gets leary, tell them the seeds must have been dropped by passing birds.

A fair few neighbours have hedges but not as high as I want mine, the hedge was already here when I bought the property but was fairly young. I only have one neighbour that it might annoy.

I thought this thread was about a new Alien film.

is disappointing

So you want a high hedge and you 'only have one neighbour' it might annoy.

Bad luck unfortunately - in my experience all the one neighbour has to do is contact the council and then you are buggered. Or, at the every least, in for a potentially expensive fight with the council.

How badly do you want the hedge? If a hedge was already there when you bought the property and everyone else has one you might be able to make some kind of argument based on that but don't count on it. Worst case is the council are reminded about the covenant and rip out all the hedges. Probably not the way to win any popularity contests 🙂

The other obvious thing to do is ask your neighbours with hedges about what they did. Perhaps they all simply asked the council and obtained the permission.

Why not aquire a number of bushes in containers and arrange them in a linier fashion creating the illusion of a hedge with the advantage of being able to regroup into less hedgy formations as required...

You can get restrictive covenant insurance for cover if someone invokes the covenant.  A one off payment covers the property permanently.  It got a house sold for me once.

Or put the trees in wooden pots or ones with big holes in the bases and stand them on bare ground / grass.  In a year or two they'll root through and plant themselves.

… the hedge was already here when I bought the property.

Then you had a pretty cr@p conveyancer acting for you. In your circs, sit tight and carry on shrubbing.

tell them the seeds must have been dropped by passing birds.

That explains how all those coconut palms  ended up in aviemore

Frag grenade then a few bursts with the assault rifle should sort them out.

You need to speak to your solicitor.  The council has nothing to do with covenants in your deeds.

You can get restrictive covenant insurance for cover if someone invokes the covenant.  A one off payment covers the property permanently.  It got a house sold for me once.

But if you are doing this then don't mention anything to the council. You probably can't get cover if you have already alerted them to your plans.

Rockhopper

You need to speak to your solicitor.  The council has nothing to do with covenants in your deeds.

Apart from the specific reference to the council in the covenant...

drlex
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IIRC, fence is not defined in legislation, and the Courts tend to give it a pretty broad interpretation to mean anything that encloses property or separates contiguous ones. Therefore your putative hedge will undoubtedly breach the covenant if it gets tested in court.

Conversely, my view would be a court would be entitled to limit the effect of the covenant to its specific wording, as to construe anything further could arguably be to go beyond what was intended.

If there is any ambiguity, then the courts would construe the relevant provision contra proferentem against the person seeking to enforce the covenant i.e. against the council.

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