A Brighton residential scheme that has been delayed by two sets of legal proceedings has finally received High Court clearance.
Local homeowner Lucille Sugarman won a High Court declaration that entitled her to carry out plans to demolish her home in Withdean Avenue in order to build eight apartments.
The court dismissed objections by Sugarman’s neighbours that 50-year-old restrictive covenants, which prevented the erection of more than a single house per site, had been passed on from owner to owner after the land was subdivided in the 1950s.
The ruling follows a prior dispute in 2004, when neighbouring resident Teresa Wall challenged the grant of planning consent for the scheme on the ground that it would overshadow her house in Lion Gardens, and was out of keeping with the area.
In the present case, Sugarman took Wall and two other neighbours, George Porter and David Creedon, to court to obtain a declaration that the restrictive covenants were valid only so long as the original owner of the whole area remained in possession.
The court held that the covenants, the first of which was created in 1953 when the site and surrounding land was purchased by former owner Katheleen Hart, ended when Hart subdivided and sold off the final piece of land in 1957.
Peter Smith J said that, once Hart sold the pieces, the covenants would have survived only if the benefit attaching to them had been expressly assigned with each sale. “Once Mrs Hart had fully developed the estate, she had no interest in enforcing any of the covenants,” he said.
The ruling clears the way for Sugarman to start work on the site, for which she was first granted planning consent in March 2004.
Sugarman v Porter and others Chancery Division (Peter Smith J) 8 March 2006.
Mark Halliwell (instructed by Land Law) appeared for the claimant; Matthew Hutchings (instructed by Richard Buxton, of Cambridge) appeared for the fourth defendant, Teresa Wall; the other defendants did not appear and were not represented.
References: EGi Legal News 10/03/06