[2025] UKUT 295 (LC)

This is an application for the Tribunal to discharge or modify restrictive covenants that burden the title of Hillside, Fairfield Road in Goring. The applicants, Mr and Mrs Harrison-Ellis, purchased Hillside in March 2020; they have since altered and enlarged the house in breach of restrictive covenants (“the restrictions”) imposed in 1965 in favour of the property diagonally opposite, known as Korobe, which belongs to the objectors Mr and Mrs Hunt.

We made an accompanied site visit to Hillside and Korobe on 27 June 2025 and are grateful to the applicants and the objectors for inviting us into their homes.

The applicants were represented by Mr Andrew Skelly and the objectors by Mr Paul Clarke and we are grateful for their submissions.

In this decision we first set out the factual background to the application, which is agreed except where we indicate that there is a dispute. Then we look at the legal background, being the provisions of s.84 and the grounds on which the Tribunal may modify the restrictions. We then look at those grounds in turn and explain our conclusion.