NSW Covenants on Vacant land

Hi everyone,

can some give me a definitive answer to this question please as I am getting mixed reports from real estate agents and investors alike:

- do covenants on vacant land have an end date (do they expire?) or are they ongoing? If they do "run out" where would I get the information to find out if it has expired in a specific development?

I have an existing house that I would like to move to vacant land. Some real estate agents are saying that the development that I would ideally like to move it to has a covenant on it preventing that, others are saying that the covenants have run out, so cannot be enforced...........?

I don't want to be buying a piece of land, and then find that I am in court breaching this that and the other.

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas please?
Thank you.

 

Covenants on land last forever BUT may be modified or removed by an authority (usually the council or original developer) specified in the 88b instrument in the contract for sale document.

 

@hudbry have a look for this at the bottom of the terms in the Sec88

 

Ok, thank you both for those pieces of information. Much appreciated.
Two further questions then please:

1. Will council have records of covenants that have been modified or cancelled then?

2. There are two houses that have recently been moved to an area. If there is a precedent set like this, does it mean I'm safe to proceed here as well or can they still enforce the covenant?

Thanks again.

 

Yes they should have easy access to current active covenants.

No you cannot assume it is safe to proceed without checking. The other houses might be in a different DP for example.

 

Ok,
thank you. So in a nutshell, the process would be:
1. find a piece of land which meets my needs
2. meet with council with the plans of my existing house, and also details of land to make sure there are no covenants on there and limitations.
3. then look to move.