Some years ago, we were contacted by local residents about a planning matter in Ranelagh Road and I recall that we discovered that there was a definite Estate in the area with Restrictive Covenants imposed by a Scheme of Development when the Estate was laid out in Victorian times.Houses in Marlborough Road as well as in Liverpool Road, Ranelagh Road, Richmond Road, Blandford Road and parts of Warwick Road (formerly known as Guy’s Lane) were all part of a uniform building scheme with restrictions and covenants as to the kind of buildings that were intended to be permitted on the land which in the early 1850s was laid out and carefully planned as “The Rectory Estate, Ealing, Middlesex”. Lots on the estate which numbered 161 Lots, were part of a Scheme of Development administered by an Executive Committee enrolled as a benefit building society. Apart from 12 of the Lots on the Estate, only detached or semi-detached houses were to be built, one on each Lot and with the Vendor’s consent, one detached house could be built on two or more plots to provide a more spacious layout to the property. All of the Deeds relating to the 161 Lots are recorded at HM Land Registry and there are 7 paragraphs of restrictions and covenants registered against each Lot in accordance with a Deed of Mutual Covenant dated 4th June 1853. On the vast majority of “The Rectory Estate” these covenants have been observed and the immediate neighbourhood is well ordered.The proposed development at 6 Marlborough Road (where the existing house stands on Lots 134 & 135) is to demolish this fine house which is a Locally Listed Building and erect in its place a purpose-built Block of 8 Flats with a communal entrance & 16 bicycle spaces according to the submitted plans. A purpose-built Block of Flats is neither a semi-detached nor a detached house and therefore would not comply with the restrictive covenants burdening the land.In a covenant case in Weybridge with a Scheme of Development, developers Cala Homes (South) Ltd claimed in legal proceedings that a modern purpose-built Block of Flats complied with a restriction limiting development to a detached house only. However, the High Court did not agree with Cala Homes’s argument. This was reported in an article in Homes and Property (Evening Standard) 6th August 2003, which states: “the judge said that common sense told him if an estate agent took him to see a detached house he would not expect to be shown a block of flats nor a basement with 22 parking spaces”.Hopefully, residents on the estate will look out their historic Deeds and seek the protection of the restrictions which benefit all of the houses erected on the estate in accordance with the Scheme of Development. As a High Court Judge once said, the benefit of a restrictive covenant may be discovered like “hidden treasure in the hour of need”.The Covenant Movement 23rd January 2023
Victor Mishiku ● 468d