[2024] UKUT 123 (LC)

‘The Transferees hereby covenants with the Transferors so as to benefit the remainder of the land now comprised in title number K716058 and so far as to bind the land hereby transferred into whosesoever hands the same may come not to use the land hereby transferred or permit or suffer the land hereby transferred to be used for an purpose other than agriculture’.

‘ ...it is therefore necessary to consider a number of connected matters. It is first necessary to identify the purpose or object of the covenant, which may be stated in the instrument imposing the restriction or may be inferred from the nature of the restriction or from the known circumstances. Next it is necessary to ask whether the character of the property or the neighbourhood has changed since the covenant was imposed. Thirdly, whether the restriction has become obsolete by reason of those changes, in the sense that the object for which the restriction was imposed can no longer be achieved. Fourthly, and finally, whether some material circumstance other than a change in the character of the property or the neighbourhood has had that effect.”

I will deal with each of these issues in turn.