Restriction modified but compensation payable

An application under section 84(1), Law of Property Act 1925 sought the modification of a restriction on development in relation to No 11 Oakfield Glade (known as Oak House).

The house in the case in question, Martin v Lipton & Ors, was on the Oakfield estate in Weybridge, Surrey. It was a residential estate of 44 properties laid out in 1928 and developed in the following years, whose original form had largely been preserved by covenants requiring that not more than one dwelling house be erected on each plot. 

The applicant, Mr Anthony Martin, was the registered proprietor of No 11 and wished to build a detached two-storey house in its garden, while retaining the existing dwelling. Planning permission for the new house was originally granted on 13 December 2017. A second planning permission was granted on 18 July 2018 for a house of the same size and layout but with a modified façade.

The objectors were all owners of other houses on the estate. There were 26 of them in total (two others having withdrawn their original objections) each of whom was entitled to the benefit of the restriction imposed on the first sale of each property prohibiting the building of more than one house on any plot.

The Upper Tribunal allowed the application and made an order indicating the modification it was prepared to make to the restriction and the conditions to which it would be subject, requiring confirmation that the compensation payments for short term disruption caused by building works have been paid to the relevant objectors.