Solitary chicken - need advice

[mrsm_jones]

My friend has just got chickens and has had them for about 2 weeks, but her neighbours have just found out and are threatening to take legal action.

Apparently it says in the deeds of her house (which she owns) that she is not allowed to keep poultry.

If they report her or send a letter from their solicitor, will she have to get rid of the hens (only 4), or is there some loophole where she could keep them somehow?

[Stevie]

I was always told that you are restricted(!) to 250 hens in suburbia and are not allowed a cockerel.I'd tell her to check her deeds carefully incase her neighbours are talking out of their bottoms and then to contact the local council to see their stance on things.

[Couperman]

I am afraid that If there is a restrictive covenant in your friends deeds and her neighbours do take legal action then they will have to get rid of them

 

I think the only way forward would be to try and persuade the neighbours not to go ahead with the legal action.

 

I am unsure what our deeds say as I have not seen them. I remember the solicitor saying that I couldn't keep horses when I first bought the house

Luckily our neighbours love the hens and the eggs.

 

Kev.

[bronze]

Also when she checks the deeds (presumably theyre the same as next doors otherwise how woule next door know) check theres nothing the neighbours do that break any covenants too

[mrsm_jones]

Local council say that as long as she has no more than 50 ( ) and they don't smell or are too noisy, then she can keep chickens.

BUt if she gets a letter from the solicitor, will she have to rehome them?

[FruitandNutCake]

I had a bit of a dispute with my ex-neighbour, but it was about a fence. I'm sure in our deeds it said that all the font gardens had to be open plan, with no fences. As I have a narrow drive, with him putting up a wooden fence, I couldn't park on my drive and get out of my car (as I couldn't open my door fully!)

 

Anyway, I complained and he said that the covenent thing only lasted so many years and was no longer valid.

 

So if there is a clause, then it would be a good idea to check whether it is still valid. (Of course my ex-neighbour could have been talking $*#&) as he was a bit of a bully and quite happily smashed my greenhouse and vandelised another neighbours car.

 

But still worth checking it out.

[Egluntyne]

Are they really likely to go to the expense of initiating legal action. I doubt it.

 

There are some miserable people about aren't there.

 

Has she tried bribing them with eggs?

[Abbey Road Girl]

As a campaigner with a post grad degree in law (am not a practitioner, i.e., a lawyer), your neighbour should be made aware that the legal system is primarily about dispute resolution not common law or natural justice. In other words, the right or wrong isn't going to be decided if it goes to court.

 

Both parties are likely to lose.

[Guest]

we had a restrictive covenant on our deeds saying we couldn't have a conservatory. we contacted the builders (in this case Redrow) and piad £50 to have the covenant removed. Half of our close have conservatories, satellite dishes on the FRONT of their house (which was also restricted) and commercial vehicles parked on their drives (which was another restriction).

 

Maybe she could contact the builder to see if the covenant can be removed. If it's an older property, many of the covenants don't really mean much any more as they're so out of date. Who was it that said their covenant said they couldn't make bricks in their back garden?

 

I'm not sure covenants hold much sway. Chickens are considered pets these days so providing she doesn't have a huge flock and is selling the eggs, I don't think she should worry.

[Pete1974]

sounds like a right nasty git

i hate her who lives next to us

its the mother in law

[Jules.]

It's Janty who's not allowed to make bricks.

[Egluntyne]

Maybe your friend could do what Poet did.

 

£50 seems a very small price to pay.

 

Also....s/he could check this neighbour's deeds..through the Land Registry and see if the neighbour is in breech of any covenants, such as a caravan in the front garden, a sky dish on the front of the house etc.

 

These things cut both ways.

 

It costs about three quid online.

 

I am not allowed to sell alcohol or keep a bawdy house.

 

More's the pity.

[Olly]

(1) The council and the house deeds are totally separate. The council can only intervene in relation to environmental health, noise, nuisance etc - they are not likely to do this over a couple of chickens. They don't enforce covenants on the title deeds.

 

(2) It's usual when property is sold for there to be covenants (obligations/rights) imposed. These can include things like: no walls or fences in the front garden, no caravans to be parked outside the houses, etc. and in older properties it's common to get ones about keeping livestock, running a public house, etc. They can also impose things like shared access, rights of way, rights of drainage and so on. Covenants don't expire with time - if they are recorded in the title deeds/register, then they are still valid.

 

(3) If the property is a fairly recent build, then the covenant may be in favour of the builder/developer and like Poet, it may be possible to get the covenant lifted for a small fee. There's no guarantee that they will be willing to do this, however.

 

(4) More commonly, the covenant is in favour of adjoining properties. In this case, it's up to the individual house owner to take legal action to enforce it. Your friend could apply to the Lands Tribunal (I think) for a declaration that the covenant isn't valid, but that would cost money and it's likely the neighbours would object.

 

On the other hand, if the neighbours want to enforce it, it will cost them money to go to court - will they be willing to spend that? Are they in breach of any other covenants, have covenants on the same development/estate been broken quite commonly by others?

 

If I were in that position, I think I'd try and talk the neighbours round - offer to resite the chickens at the other end of the garden, promise that there won't be any noise/smell etc. If that fails, then they'll just have to face it out and wait and see if the neighbours are actually willing to go to court over it. It's not an ideal situation but there should be plenty of warning before any court proceedings are issued. I'd have thought it unlikely they would go that far, but then you should see the amount of money people are willing to spend over the ownership of a 6" wide strip of land!

[chelsea]

we own our house on a private cul-de-sac. Its probably about 30 years old. Our deeds do state no chickens but we got them anyway as most of the rules in the deeds have been broken here anyway (speed boats/caravans/commercial vans on drives) satellite dishes, fencing where there shouldnt be fencing etc etc - so if anyone challenges us we would bring that up first.

 

I agree with Eglutine, they probably are threatening - but may possibly not go "all the way" with their actions (hope not anyway).

 

I would maybe advise to come to some sort of compromise/a friendly chat - chickens really arent all that bad and with a lot of people its the "thought of chickens" without really knowing what chickens are really like -puts a lot of people off them.

 

There is no way we would get rid of our chooks, if the whole cul-de-sac kicked up we would move!

[mrsm_jones]

Thanks everyone!

I will pass on the information....what a wealth of it we have here on the forum!