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United Kingdom
Key definition
Restrictive Covenant definition What does Restrictive Covenant mean? A restrictive covenant is a promise not to carry out specified acts. In practice it arises chiefly in land transactions and in employment or commercial agreements. The expression is descriptive and shaped largely by case law, with statutory frameworks for registration and modification. Land law (England & Wales and Northern Ireland): a negative covenant affecting land use may bind successors in equity if it benefits identifiable land and “touches and concerns” it, the original parties intended the burden to run, and a successor takes with notice (now usually via registration). Protection is by entry of a notice on the registered title,...
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Restrictive covenants on freehold land: categories, annexation and running of burden/benefit, building schemes, and registration/priority in registered and unregistered land (England and Wales)
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Practice notes
Covenants restricting the use of land imposed by a seller may be divided into three classes:
- covenants created for the seller’s own personal advantage
- covenants imposed in the seller’s capacity as owner of other retained land, of which the land sold once formed part, intended to protect or benefit the land kept back
- covenants on the sale of land to multiple purchasers who, together with their respective successors in title, are meant mutually to enjoy the benefit of, and be bound by, those covenants
The first class is enforceable only by the seller, unless it is expressly assigned to a third party. For instance, in Cosmichome, a covenant requiring the buyer to occupy the property solely for a specified purpose, capable of being lifted on payment of overage, was held not to be aimed at protecting or benefiting the seller’s land, but to be purely personal to the seller (as the seller’s reason for imposing it was plainly financial rather than proprietary). Covenants in the second class are said to run with the land and, accordingly, may be enforced by the owner for the time being of the land which takes the benefit of the covenant without the...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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