Every conveyancer knows that the possibility of an old covenant imposed upon a freehold property being enforced is practically nil. Yet instead of taking a view, as was the practice 20 to 30 years ago, everyone now demands insurance to the great benefit of insurance companies, but, so far as I can ascertain, virtually no one else. Very often the premium will cost something in the order of 25% of the solicitor’s conveyancing costs.

If the pre-registration title deeds are available it is sometimes possible to work out who could potentially benefit from the restrictive covenants, but this is rarely the case with registered conveyancing since the Land Registry does not make any entry to show who has the benefit of the covenants.

I can well understand someone selling a portion of their garden to a neighbour not wanting their view spoilt, but most newly created covenants are imposed by builders and are designed to keep housing estates in the course of construction presentable until the builder has sold the last property.

I note that one or two builders now limit the life of their covenants to a specific period, say five years, and in my view this is a welcome development - surely planning controls are sufficient thereafter for most purposes. Further, the average buyer, notwithstanding the fact that his solicitor reports on the existence of covenants, blithely ignores or indeed more probably fails to understand their relevance, and when building an extension happily proceeds with the benefit of planning and building consent believing that this is all that is needed. Until, that is, he comes to sell the property and needs retrospective consent or insurance.

Could we please have a statutory ‘shelf life’ for freehold covenants - I would suggest a maximum of 20 years with the option for certain specialist landowners in particularly sensitive locations (for example, the Grosvenor estate) to be able to register their entitlement to the benefit of longer-lasting covenants.

It should be made a relatively complicated matter to register such covenants, perhaps involving an application to the court for leave to effect such a registration and with the court having power to limit the validity of the registration to, say, 20 years but with the possibility of a renewal.

Is there any genuine need for the vast majority of old covenants to clutter up the titles of freehold properties?

RM Napier, Albinson Napier & Co, Warrington