[2025] UKUT 295 (LC)

At one time the land on which Hillside, Claremont and Gap House are situated was in the same ownership as Korobe. In August 1960 planning permission was granted for a detached bungalow and garage at Hillside. On 25 August 1965 the plot was sold subject to the following restrictions in favour of Korobe and the land on which Claremont and Gap House now stand:

“(1)

Not to erect or cause or permit to be erected any building whatsoever nearer to Fairfield Road than the building line established by the eastern face of the single storey dwellinghouse at present erected on the land adjoining that hereby conveyed on the south and known as “Chesil Bank” Fairfield Road aforesaid

(2)

Not to erect or cause or permit to be erected on the remainder of the land hereby conveyed any other building than one single storey dwellinghouse with the usual outbuildings and appurtenances thereto but so that the Purchaser shall be at liberty to incorporate in the roof of any such dwellinghouse bedroom accommodation with dormer windows provided that the said dormer windows shall be situated on either the western or southern slopes of the roof of the said dwellinghouse and not on the northern or eastern slopes thereof

(3)

That the height of any such building hereafter to be erected on the land hereby conveyed shall be limited so that no part thereof shall rise above the existing level of the ridge of the roof of the said single storey dwellinghouse known as “Chesil Bank”

...”

It is agreed that the ridge height of the neighbouring single storey house, Chesil Bank, was raised by 70 cm in 2005. The restrictions of course require that development of Hillside be limited by reference to the original height of Chesil Bank.

On 20 July 1968 planning permission was granted for a detached bungalow with garage on each of the two plots now known as Claremont and Gap House. The plots were sold to separate purchasers on 1 April 1969, subject to restrictions permitting development of a single storey dwellinghouse, limiting the forward building line to that established at Hillside, preventing the siting of dormer windows in the eastern slope of the roof and preventing any windows in the eastern elevation except at ground floor level. Those plots retained the benefit of the restrictions over Hillside, but no objections to this application were received from the owners of Claremont and Gap House.

The objectors purchased Korobe, at that time a five-bedroom dormer bungalow, in August 2019. Mr Hunt’s evidence, which we accept, was that when he and Mrs Hunt bought Korobe in 2019 they were not made aware of the restrictions from which it benefited. At that time Korobe was thoroughly shielded from view, both from Hillside and from passers-by on the road, by a flint and brick wall and hedge; from the bungalow in its elevated situation one could see out across the Goring Gap, but it was not possible to see the bungalow from below on the other side of the wall. The objectors lived elsewhere in Goring and let it under an eight-month tenancy agreement from 1 November 2019 until 30 June 2020.