How do I find a restrictive covenant on my title?
Read the charges register on the title register. The covenant is either set out in full or noted as contained in a deed of a given date, with the words "copy filed" or a short summary. Ask for the filed deed. A summary can leave out the words that decide whether your extension is caught.
The property register can matter too: it sometimes notes that your land has the benefit of covenants over neighbouring plots, so you can enforce as well as be bound. On unregistered land there is no register to read. The covenants sit in the old conveyances, protected by a Class D(ii) land charge registered against the name of the estate owner under section 2(5)(ii) of the Land Charges Act 1972, which covers a covenant restrictive of the use of land, other than one between a landlord and tenant, entered into on or after 1 January 1926 (checked 20 September 2026). A covenant older than that cannot be registered at all and binds a buyer who has notice of it.
Searches will not find it. Only the title does.
Who can enforce a restrictive covenant?
Only someone who owns land with the benefit of it, and only while the covenant still does that land some good. On a modern estate that can be the developer, and under a building scheme every other plot owner. A building scheme needs the four things set out in Elliston v Reacher [1908] 2 Ch 374: title derived from a common vendor, an estate laid out in plots before sale subject to restrictions meant to apply to all of them, restrictions intended for the benefit of every plot, and plots bought on that footing. Where those are made out the plot owners can enforce against each other. On a former council house it is usually the council. On an 1890s covenant the beneficiary is often untraceable.
That uncertainty is the practical problem. A buyer and a lender will not proceed on a guess, so the question on a sale is rarely whether anyone will enforce, but whether the risk can be handled in a form both accept.
Can a restrictive covenant be removed?
By three routes, and the choice turns on who has the benefit, how old the covenant is and what you want to do. The first removes nothing: it is an indemnity policy covering owner and lender against loss if the covenant is ever enforced. Whether a lender will accept one is not a general rule; each lender answers that for itself in its own part of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook, and the answer has to be checked for the lender on the file. Take the insurance question first, because approaching the person with the benefit, or making enquiries about the covenant, can destroy the insurability of the risk. The second route is a deed of release or consent from the person with the benefit. The third is an application to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 to discharge or modify it. The grounds are that the restriction has become obsolete through changes in the character of the property or the neighbourhood; that it impedes some reasonable use of the land, where it either secures no practical benefit of substantial value or advantage to those entitled or is contrary to the public interest, and money would be adequate compensation; that those entitled have agreed, expressly or by their acts or omissions; or that discharge or modification will not injure them. The tribunal must also weigh the development plan and the local pattern of planning decisions. It can order the applicant to pay compensation, either for the loss suffered or for the reduction in the price originally received, but under one of those heads and not both (sections 84(1), (1A) and (1B), checked 20 September 2026).
| Route | How it works | Best when | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indemnity policy | A one-off policy covering owner and lender against loss if the covenant is enforced | Historic covenant, beneficiary untraceable, nobody has complained | Covers loss, not the covenant; whether earlier contact with the beneficiary affects cover is a matter of the policy wording, so ask the insurer before you approach anyone |
| Release or consent | The beneficiary signs a deed of release, or consents to the specific works, and the entry is amended | Beneficiary known and cooperative, covenant recent | Gives them a price to name, and cover may not be offered once the beneficiary has been approached, so check the policy position before you ask |
| Upper Tribunal, section 84 | The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) discharges or modifies a covenant that is obsolete, that impedes a reasonable use of the land without securing practical benefits of substantial value, that the beneficiaries have agreed to release, or that injures nobody (section 84(1)(a), (aa), (b) and (c) with section 84(1A), checked 20 September 2026) | You want it gone for good, for example before a development | A tribunal process rather than a form-filling one, measured in months, needing evidence and usually a valuer; the tribunal can order compensation, either for the loss the discharge causes or for the reduction in the price the land fetched when the covenant was imposed (section 84(1)(i) and (ii)) |
What happens if a covenant has already been breached?
Take advice before you approach anybody. An open breach that has stood for years is often insurable on good terms because nobody has complained, and an insurer may treat earlier contact with the beneficiary as something that affects whether cover can be offered at all. That turns on the individual policy wording rather than on any published industry rule, so the question is put to the insurer first. Where the beneficiary is known and reasonable, a release is permanent and a policy is not, so both are worth pricing before either is ruled out.
Delay also weakens enforcement. A beneficiary who watched the extension go up may struggle to get an injunction years later, though damages remain possible: the court has a discretion under section 50 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 to award damages instead of an injunction, and the Supreme Court in Coventry v Lawrence [2014] UKSC 13 held that discretion is not fettered by any mechanical test (checked 20 September 2026). Deal with it before you market the property, not after a buyer's conveyancer finds it. Our selling service reads the charges register before marketing for that reason.