Estate Covenants and Historic Issues

Many properties at Oak Tree Gardens are subject to covenants contained within their original property transfer documents. These form part of the legal framework for the estate and can cover things such as alterations, use of properties and other restrictions or obligations.

Since the resident directors took control of the Management Company in January 2026, the Board has been reviewing how these matters have historically been dealt with and has identified a number of issues which pre-date the current resident-led Board. At the January AGM, the previous directors resigned and the Management Company moved under resident director control.

Some of these historic matters remain unresolved and now require the current Board to establish the legal position, understand where responsibility sits and decide what action is appropriate.

Where the Management Company has a legal role in relation to a covenant, we need to deal with matters fairly, consistently and proportionately. Equally, where we believe an issue should properly have been resolved before resident control, we will seek to have that addressed by the relevant responsible party rather than simply allowing historic issues, liabilities or costs to pass to residents.

This is particularly important while the wider estate handover and land transfer remains ongoing. The Board’s position is that unresolved historic matters should be properly understood and, where appropriate, dealt with before residents take on any further responsibility.

We also want to be clear that this does not mean taking an unnecessarily heavy-handed approach to covenants. Each matter needs to be considered on its own facts and legal position, and we will always look to resolve issues reasonably and proportionately where possible.

Going forward, our approach will be to make sure decisions are consistent, properly documented and made in the interests of the estate as a whole. We also want residents to understand how and why decisions are being made, particularly where there may be a wider impact on the Management Company or service charge.

The aim is simple: to deal properly with historic issues, avoid residents taking on unnecessary costs or liabilities, and ensure the estate is managed fairly and transparently by the resident-led Board.