Freehold estate management
Information on the position of freehold homeowners who pay a charge for the upkeep of shared areas and facilities on their estates.

This Commons Library briefing paper provides information about the freehold covenants. Specifically, detecting, enforcing, modifying or releasing a covenant.
Freehold Covenants (1 MB , PDF)
Freehold land can be either registered (at HM Land Registry) or unregistered (i.e. the owner of the land will have in their possession a bundle of deeds). Freehold land can be affected by any of the following third-party interests:
Freehold covenants are a type of contractual promise concerning land. Restrictive covenants can be enforced against future owners of the land, in contrast to positive covenants which can only be enforced against the person who made the promise.
A restrictive covenant (also known as a negative covenant) consists of an agreement in a deed that one party will restrict the use of its land in some way for the benefit of another’s land. For example, a restrictive covenant might:
A positive covenant imposes an obligation to carry out some positive action in relation to land or requires expenditure of money. For example, a positive covenant may require:
This distinction between positive and restrictive covenants is important. The burden (i.e. the obligation to observe a covenant) does not generally bind successors in title where a covenant is positive in nature, but it may do so if the covenant is restrictive.
This Library briefing paper deals only with freehold covenants (not leasehold covenants, which operate under a wholly different legal regime). The term ‘land’ is used throughout out this Paper to denote all freehold property.
Freehold Covenants (1 MB , PDF)
Information on the position of freehold homeowners who pay a charge for the upkeep of shared areas and facilities on their estates.
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