Covenants and insurance for a HMO?

What does your solicitor say?

Steve
Restrictive covenants are a complex area of law. The fact that the beneficiary does not appear at Companies House is not definitive and may be irrelevant.

The good news is that in many cases restrictive covenants are not enforceable for various technical reasons.

Please PM me or look up my name and contact me and I may be able to help.

Restrictive covenants usually run with the land, exactly who can enforce them is more difficult.

The other point is HMOs are not the easiest to define. Consider how they have defined am HMO and how it effects your plans

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 03/07/2023 – 14:09
Steve,
The date of the covenant could be helpful. Do neighbours have the benefit of the covenants?Have the rights ever been exercised? Lots of Victorian houses had a clause stating only one house per plot. A lot of these have been over ridden.Secondly, one unit can possibly include a hmo.
A relatively recent covenant on the sale of a former local authority house could be enforceable much more easily

Steve,
I concur with Eileen that date matters a lot.. what was even meant by HMO? ….every Victorian middle class family villa housing the family + 2 live-in domestic servants would be an HMO if current usage of the term were applied. Shared houses were the norm across society.
On who can enforce, I would assume the beneficiary limited company owned adjacent plots (and didn’t want value affected before all were sold), but your neighbours could possibly claim that right.

Reply to the comment left by Simon F at 04/07/2023 – 00:10Simon F, whether a covenant prevents use of the property as an HMO depends on its wording. If use is restricted to a “single household” then an HMO will not qualify.
The Victorian family villa with live-in servants would count as a single household and would not be an HMO. Even today some wealthy people have live-in nannies, cooks and other staff but their property will be a single household, not an HMO.

You also need to know if the property is in an article 4 area.
Councils are blocking HMO,s in many parts of the country and trying to rent a property as a HMO without the correct licence could lead to a Rent Repayment order. And fines from the council.
You can’t run under the radar

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 03/07/2023 – 11:50
I’m interested in your comment:

“ The good news is that in many cases restrictive covenants are not enforceable for various technical reasons.”

Our next door neighbour has the benefit of a covenant on our property in that no other building/property can be built without their permission. Also an additional covenant that the property can only be used for residential use. The neighbours have given us permission to build one more dwelling on the land but they will not release us from the covenant that the property/properties must be for residential use only. We want to build a house to live in on the land and then use the existing property we currently live in as a HMO during the academic year as we live in a university town, and holiday let during the summer season. A HMO is classed as residential which would meet the covenant restrictions but a holiday let is not classed as residential. If you know of a way around this restrictive covenant I would be very, very interested to know. Many thanks.

Reply to the comment left by Troy at 05/07/2023 – 22:37
Troy
Please send me a message or look up my name and contact me and I may be able to help on a professional basis.

Covenants can be personal or be attached to benefitting land, so the fact that the “beneficiary” company no longer exists may (or may not) be irrelevant. See a solicitor.