Locking Bar Eglu Classic

[Valkyrie]

Our council only said no to cockerels, otherwise no problem. Rats have already visited the houses around here for years, mainly encouraged by people feeding too much to wild birds - and they just love living under decking. Our deeds say no to livestock, but it is generally accepted that hens are peoples pets nowadays (said so in a newspaper the other day - which we have kept just in case). Like Steve, quite a few people here have already broken the covenant in different ways. I think someone said something about applying for a covenant to be removed at around £50 on a thread earlier on this year, but I can't remember where it was.

[Valkyrie]

P.S. It was Poet who had the covenant lifted for £50. To find other threads - there are so many - do a search for "covenant" - it will bring up all the threads with neighbours disputes and concerns etc.

[Gallina]

I have never heard of any council which does not allow you to keep a small number of back-garden hens if you live in a private house.

 

They will all have the "No cockerels" rule, and of course you should leave a gap between your boundary fence and the hen run (the Omlet skirt forces you to do this anyway!). Other rules will vary between councils, especially the limit on the number of hens you can keep, so it is worth asking before you start.

 

If you don't keep your hens clean or do not take appropriate action if you get rats, then it is an Environmental Health issue.

 

I would check the restrictive covenants relating to your specific house too. If the news is bad, you can still choose to ignore them, but at least you will know you are taking a risk and that you must take special care not to annoy the neighbours!

[owenofj]

Nah, never bothered... evil neighbour did ask if we had checked if we were allowed, so we just said yes, there was nothing to say we couldn't.

[Steve.]

Can I just correct this - when you buy a house, it may have covenants (enforceable rights), and yes if you buy from a developer then they may be enforceable by the developer. It's not necessarily the case though - in many cases, the ownership of the rights and obligations will pass from the developer to your neighbours when they buy their property.

 

That's common sense - as well as covenants about not keeping caravans or commercial vehicles on the drive, and not keeping livestock etc, there may be rights of access over shared driveways, and so on. It's no good if they depend on the developer enforcing them, so they are often transferred with the title to the new owners.

 

I don't think you can just rely on the developer having ceased business or sold up to someone else. Having said that, it is very unlikely that any of your neighbours would want to spend the amount of money it would cost to take a case to court.

 

Very interesting to know - and may also depend on the original wording? Ours (although does not refer to animals in any way) refers to enforement by 'the company' which is predefined at the start of the document.

[Stevie]

Odd isnt it that during and for decades after the second world war-the public was activley encouraged to keep chickens by the goverment because both eggs and their meat are a nutricious part of your diet yet cost pence to feed.Now councils have restrictions or even outright bans from keeping poultry.

 

You'd have thought that what with rising food costs and people wanting ethically raised eggs/meat-it would again be encouraged by the powers that be.

[MedusA]

Our next-door-neighbour, who has the run near to her fence, is quite happy with the girls being there. She grew up on a farm, with chickens, so often asks after the girls. We give her spare eggs anyway. The landlord of the house the other side was only interested in as much as his wife wanted to ask me all about keeping chickens as she wants some!

 

I never spoke to the council. There are quite a few of us Omleteers in Birmingham, so I never even considered it might be a problem.

[beach chick]

to be honest, it never occurred to me that we should check! luckily our closest neighbours used to have chooks, and at least 2 of the ones that back onto the garden/field did as well, so we havent had any problems.

[Olly]

Very interesting to know - and may also depend on the original wording? Ours (although does not refer to animals in any way) refers to enforement by 'the company' which is predefined at the start of the document.

 

Yes, it would depend on the wording. Usually it will say something like 'Fred Bloggs (the developer) and their successors in title'. 'Successors in title' means the people who bought it from the developer, or anyone who bought it from them - as I said, it's designed to continue the protection of the covenants for future purchasers.

 

Someone developing a residential estate has to think about all the sorts of things that might make it unpleasant to live there - so you get restrictions about commercial vehicles, running a business building fences or walls above a certain height in the front garden, and so on. They're all designed to maintain the area as a residential development, and it's possible that the local authority will insist on some of these as part of the original planning permission for the development.

 

The 'no livestock' is probably designed to stop anyone keeping pigs or horses in the back garden, which wouldn't be appropriate in a residential area. It's up for debate whether chickens count as livestock - it's not been put to the test! I don't think that many councils are bothered unless it becomes an environmental issue - I may be wrong but I think Jay (xscrunchee) above was quoting from a tenancy agreement, not from a council bye-law.

[Steve.]

Thanks Olly, I will take a closer look at the deeds next time they are stored away.

 

On another note, it is a shame that there is no overall guidance on keeping chicks. Even a how-to-find-out would probably reduce doubt.

[whittlewitch]

Now you have me worrying that ! should have asked for permission, I knew that my deeds were ok, but I never thought to ask the borough council! I'm going to guess that as non of my parish councillors have mentioned this to me, a couple being borough councillors I am ok, and should just keep quiet. So sssshhh...

[Omletina Kyckling]

I didn't check, but then again I live in an old farmhouse, minus the farm if you know what I mean, so I can't see there would be a problem - apparently there used to be a five bar gate at the bottom of the garden and they used to let the cows into the garden at times so my ladies aren't likely to break any rules! I told my neighbours either side I was getting chickens and they were fine about it.