By Daniel Moulis, Principal and Lauren Gray,
Lawyer
Developers often want to "lock-in" the value of the
amenity and design of a new development, such as in a commercial
precinct or new suburb. Similarly, residents of a street or suburb
often wish they had some way of controlling what their neighbours
do on surrounding blocks of land.
What if there was a way to define your own rules, for your own
development, or your own street? Could your rules override what the
local planning body wanted to do in the future? Maybe you can, by
way of covenants to controland restrict what adjoining landowners
can do with their land.
The issue is back in the news, with recent media reports
suggesting that the chief executive of the Sussan Group cannot
redevelop her $12 million residential property in Melbourne the way
she wants to, because of a covenant imposed in 1890 limiting the
roof of any structure built on the land to"slates or
tiles".
