What are restrictive covenants?

A restrictive covenant is a promise by one person to another, (such as a buyer of land and a seller) not to do certain things with land/property. It binds the land and not an individual person and therefore "runs with the land". This means that the covenant continues even when the buyer sells the land on to another person. Restrictive covenants continue to have effect even though they may have been made many years ago and appear to be obsolete.

Examples of restrictive covenants are:

not to keep a caravan on the property
not to run a business from the property
not to keep any animals other than domestic pets on the property
not to display advertisements, bills or placards on the property other than a notice that the land/property is to let or for sale.