Restrictive Covenants

In 2017 we were asked to advise Clients on no less than four occasions in respect of the ‘diminution in value’ to ‘benefited land’ on discharge or modification of restrictive covenants to be paid to owners of ‘burdened land’.     Our clients owned variously benefited land and burdened land.

This is a specialised area of valuation, particularly in the residential sector.

Most recently we have had some measure of success in a case involving the modification of a restrictive covenant in Liverpool which has confirmed, if such confirmation was needed, that valuations in these circumstances can be complicated.

In that case, the award to the owners of the burdened land was not a “Stokes v Cambridge percentage” or any share of development profit or anything like it.  Our clients in Liverpool won the opinion of an independently appointed arbitrator/expert, who confirmed our opinions of value.   This was substantially below the expectations of the owners of the benefited land in that case.

In an earlier case, in which we provided expert evidence, a widow, who wanted to maximise the use of her garden to provide a new family home for herself and her children, was prevented from doing so by a restrictive covenant.  Our client was the owner of ‘burdened land’, who was asked to pay £250,000 in compensation in return for having the restrictive covenant modified.  The Upper Tribunal decided to modify the restrictive covenant and they awarded compensation of £2,500 only.

For full details of our most recent cases go to:

UT neutral citation number: [2015] UKUT 0448 (LC) – Case number LP/10/2013

UT neutral citation number: [2017] UKUT 0203 (LC) – Case number LP/31/2015

UT neutral citation number: [2020] UKUT 0008 (LC) – Case number LP/13/2018

And for more information on this and other specialised areas of residential valuation, please contact Michael Tibbatts MRICS MEWI at mike@scrivenertibbatts.co.uk

Restrictive Covenants