'Test case' as judge backs right to let despite convenant

A couple have failed in a bid to prosecute their neighbour for letting out his property in what some say will become a test case.

A report on the website of the Northampton Chronicle says the couple, from the town, claimed a covenant placed on the next door house, which prevented business usage, was enough to stop its owner from renting it out.

However a judge at Northampton County Court dismissed the complaint and, setting a possible legal precedent, ruled that letting out a property does not count as business.

Defending the landlord - Reshat Tasher - legal representative Lynsey Ward from DW Solicitors said: “A lot of people could be affected by this. All the properties around the one in question are bound by the same covenant so that will be at least 300 people.”

She says this was the first time that an issue of that kind had been deal with in court “so other residents can now be assured that, if they have this restriction on their title deeds, it does not restrict them from simply letting the property as a residential dwelling, so long as the property is not used by the tenants as a business.”

The newspaper says the complaint was originally made after the couple noticed that the tenant next door was running a small child-minding service. They contacted the landlord, to say that the business, which backs onto a school, was creating too much noise.

However, in court the couple were reported to be claiming that the property, which Tasher inherited from his aunt, was bound by a restrictive covenant and should not be privately let.

The judge agreed that the tenants’ child-minding service was in breach of the covenant and should prompt eviction. But the judge dismissed the couple’s complaint about letting the property.

The couple were ordered to cover the legal costs of both sides, coming to £12,400