We were romping along looking at forms telling us whether or not we could expect the radiators to still be there, or the bathroom fittings, or the roof, when we bought our new house, when the lovely Jackie suggested that we should point out to our conveyancer that we would be particularly interested if there happened to be any covenants still in force there which would affect our enjoyment of our camper van. So we did, and it turns out that actually there is just the one:
The transferee (that's us) covenants (i.e. enters into a legal contract)
not to:
- unless parking a domestic vehicle on the Parking Space not to park at any time on any part of the Maintained Areas or on the Property any boat lorry commercial vehicle of any description trailer caravan house on wheels or other similar chattel unless it is enclosed within a garage or other enclosure on the Property.
Hmmmm... apart from the double negative, that seems pretty unequivocal. You can't park a camper van (or caravan, or boat) on your own freehold property unless it's inside the garage.
There are loads of these covenants, which are written by the estate builders to keep their nice new housing "developments" free from travellers' encampments, small business owners illicitly operating heavy haulage or waste disposal operations from home, sub-letters, ne'er-do-wells, con-men, purse-snatchers, ruffians, blackguards, malefactors, nuisances, nose-pickers, arse-scratchers and perfectly nice people who own camper vans. They are then enshrined in law so as to "run with the land" (as he quaint legal terminology has it) which means that they are necessarily passed down to all future owners of the properties on their estate for the rest of time. Phew! That's quite a long while.
Various parties have suggested that it's probably OK, because nobody will actually care if we park our van on our own property where it can't even be seen from the road; and that is, in all probability, true; but I still find myself bristling with indignation. I just don't like the idea of signing a contract which I fully expect to break on day one, and every day thereafter.
So - there has been discontent in the Sears household while we wonder whether to blunder ahead anyway, with our eyes closed and our fingers crossed, or just call the whole thing off. We've veered in each direction, sought advice, slept on it, talked it over, and (in a bizarre episode during which we successfully got Layla to go to sleep in the car) sung about it. Eventually the lovely Jackie solved the ethical problem by asking "what exactly, in legal terminology, is an enclosure?". It turns out, after reference to my copy of MacKenzie and Phillips (Textbook on Land Law, 10th Edition 2004) and various other sources, that it's pretty much the same as in everyday English: "land bounded by a fence, wall, hedge, ditch or other physical boundary". Since the entire back garden (including the garage and most of the drive) is bordered by fences, walls, hedges, and quite possibly ditches, and closed off from the rest of the world by a gate across the drive (should one choose to shut it) I am happy to believe that it constitutes an "other enclosure". And so my conscience is clear, and we are back to buying the house again.
All that remains is to lighten the tone with some sort of picture. Maybe this one:
Or if that's just too much of let-down, here's a rather modified Honda C90 Super Cub.
I rather like this actually. I particularly appreciate keeping the original front forks, and the "it's a C90, so the fuel tank is underneath the seat, right?" aesthetic. And the bicycle pedal kickstart. And the hardtail. I just can't quite imagine actually riding the thing. Still, now that the double garage is back within sight again...
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| perfectly nice people who own camper vans |
Or if that's just too much of let-down, here's a rather modified Honda C90 Super Cub.
I rather like this actually. I particularly appreciate keeping the original front forks, and the "it's a C90, so the fuel tank is underneath the seat, right?" aesthetic. And the bicycle pedal kickstart. And the hardtail. I just can't quite imagine actually riding the thing. Still, now that the double garage is back within sight again...
Very blustery out here today, the wind is whipping up the big beech plantation into a roaring raging dance of autumn. The rain is not so much falling but more hurling itself against the metal roof which sings as only a metal roof can in the rain. And the gusts of wind seek out every crevice and test our resolve. For a moment I think of all those friends who have taken late holidays to sunny climes, but only for a moment because I am grateful to be right here now. So...Iam very pleased that your considerations have led you to the endpoint you describe. I am contemplating buying some land at the bottom of our valley at an exorbitant price but which would then protect the whole valley from development. So far I have discovered that some of the land has a claim to the manorial rights lodged at the Land Registry by the Duke of Bedford; the fishing and riparian rights have already gone to a dodgy millionaire banker; there are two potential sitting tenants one being a clay pigeon club that shoots on one half of the property and the other a farmer claiming the other half; oh and there is a derelict sausage skin factory in the middle with no drains except a deep green pond that has received everything for the last 50 years but mysteriously never fills up....
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks Colin, that's some comment! Makes my issues seem a bit trivial really. I'll read up some more on copyhold for you, but I notice that manorial rights to minerals, fairs etc do not include rights to access. But a derelict sausage skin factory - how can you resist?
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