Firstly a bit of history:
We bought a block of land and settled in June.
When we were enquiring about the block initially with the estate agents, I asked if there were any restrictive covenants on the block. The estate agents gave us a photocopy of the special conditions section of the contract which showed the restrictive covenants which were in place. (not that many - but one that mentioned there was to only be a treated pine exposed post and capping box paling fence)
However, when we were going about purchasing the block and were given the contracts to look at - there weren't any covenants listed - the only thing that was listed under the special conditions was that we were to get a soil test done by a certain date. We spoke to our solicitor at the time and he advised that it was in our favour that there weren't any covenants listed on the contract and this is what we signed.
Fast forward to now.......
We have asked our builders to arrange the remaining fencing for our block as part of our build. (We have a battleaxe block and over half of the block has been fenced already) In our building quote they included the cost to construct paling fences. However they have just come to us with a variation to the contract - 'Upgrade to Capping Fence with exposed posts, as required in the covenant and not allowed for in quote. (Other areas on site have fencing that is not allowed in covenant)'.
So, I am confused.....if we don't have any covenants on our land as per our contract - are there any other covenants that override what our contract says (or doesn't say)
And..... if other fencing has been done that isn't allowed in the covenant - why should we have to have something different, particular when part of our fencing that needs to be done is between 2 areas of paling fence and would look ridiculous if we were to have capping fencing done.
Hopefully all this makes sense!
Look forward to any comments.....