Introduction
A building scheme (such as the scheme embodied in a Deed of Mutual Covenant) creates a local law for the estate it governs. The scheme may require owners of property within the scheme to obtain the consent of a common landlord (in a scheme established for leasehold properties) or of some other body (such as a Management Committee) before making alterations or additions to the property. This arrangement envisages the formal submission of plans as the start of a process leading to consent or refusal to give consent. Carrying work out without the requisite consent is a breach of covenant and can lead to an action for a declaration, damages and the grant of an injunction.
What if an owner makes alterations to property without obtaining the formal consent required but either: (a) the person or body with the capacity to give the consent knew of the work and failed to object to it; or (b) the person or body with the capacity to give consent has repeatedly failed to enforce the restriction with regard to alterations made to other properties within the scheme? Would it be inequitable either to allow the enforcement of the covenant or, if it is enforceable, to grant an injunction requiring the property to be reinstated?
These questions were considered by the Privy Council in Singh v Rainbow Court Townhouses Ltd ([2018] UKPC 19), on appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Singh v Rainbow Court Townhouses Ltd
Mrs. Singh owned a house in the Rainbow Court estate. She held the property under a lease for 199 years. The lease contained a recital to the effect that all of the units in Rainbow Court would be sold under a building scheme under which the covenants would be mutually enforceable. Rainbow Court Townhouses Ltd (‘the company’) was a company formed for the purpose of managing the development.
The lease contained a tenant’s covenant not to make any alteration or addition to the property without the prior written approval of the landlord and of the company. Mrs. Singh carried out works at her house without either consent. The company sought mandatory injunctions requiring Mrs. Singh to remove the alterations she had made.
Acquiescence or waiver
Mrs. Singh argued that the landlord and the company had acquiesced in the breach of covenant since: (a) (through its officers and employees) it knew of the work that was to be carried out for several days before it began and had not objected; and (b) the owners of ten other properties within the building scheme had carried out unauthorised alterations to their properties and neither the landlord nor the company had done anything to enforce the covenant against them.
On waiver, Lord Carnwath (with whom the other members of the Privy Council agreed) approved this statement:
‘It is in all cases a question of degree. It is in many ways analogous to the doctrine of estoppel, and I think it is a fair test to treat it in that way and ask, “Have the plaintiffs by their acts and omissions represented to the defendant that the covenants are no longer enforceable and that he is therefore entitled to use his house as a guest house.’
(Chatsworth Estates Co v Fewell [1931] 1 CH 224 at 231 per Farwell J.)
Lord Carnwath commented:
‘The issue was not whether breaches had been overlooked in individual cases but whether these omissions could be said to amount in effect to a representation that the covenants were no longer enforceable.’ ([32]).
The informal exchanges with the company’s employees and officers were not a waiver:
‘The mere failure of two officers to make immediate objection in October 2014 when notified of works due to start within in about a week, without any detailed information of their nature cannot be interpreted as a representation of any kind on behalf of the company.’ ([33])
The courts below had, however, failed to adequately investigate the allegations that the landlord and the company had not objected when other owners within the scheme had carried out unauthorised alterations:
‘On the face of the pleadings there was an arguable case that these were no different in kind to works which had been accepted without objection on other properties. Whether or not this gave rise to a case of waiver in the sense defined by Farwell J, they were at least arguably relevant to the scope of any mandatory order. It is difficult to see how fairness … would be served by an order which required the Appellant to carry out such works without any investigation of their significance, or how they compared to works accepted without objection on other properties on the estate.’ ([35])
The appeal was allowed and the case was remitted to the High Court.
Michael Lower