[2025] UKUT 135 (LC)

Section 84(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925 gives the Tribunal jurisdiction to discharge or modify a restrictive covenant affecting freehold land, in whole or in part, if it is satisfied that:

“(a)

that by reason of changes in the character of the property or the neighbourhood or other circumstances of the case which the Upper Tribunal may deem material, the restriction ought to be deemed obsolete…

It is well-established that a restriction is obsolete if its purpose can no longer be achieved; and that where a personal covenant can no longer be complied with because the person to whom it was given is dead – or, in the case of a company, no longer exists – then the Tribunal will discharge the covenant on the basis that it is obsolete. Savage v 60 Kent Road (Maintenance) Limited [2021] UKUT 102 (LC) is a straightforward example.