Doberman v Watson

The claimants were the freehold owners of land subject to a restrictive covenant prohibiting the erection of more than one dwelling-house on the land. The claimants wished to build another house on their land. The defendants, who owned neighbouring land, objected and sought to rely on the covenant. The claimants sought a declaration under s.84, Law of Property Act 1925 that their land was not affected by the covenant.

David Halpern QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, granted the declaration. The covenant did not bind the claimants because the benefit of the covenant had not been annexed to the defendant’s land in previous conveyances and neither did the defendant’s and claimants’ land form part of a building scheme with mutually enforceable covenants.