Finding a great property development site only to discover it has a restriction on the title like a single dwelling covenant can be very frustrating and often leads to a potential project being ruled out. However, getting covenants lifted or modified is not an impossible task, but it can be tricky.

Fortunately, we are speaking with a previous guest who has lifted not only one, but two, restrictive covenants in two very different ways.

So let's find out what's involved with varying or removing a single dwelling covenant or other restriction on a property's title.

"Be inquisitive and you might learn something useful." John Marquez

 

Lifting Restrictive Land Covenants

What is a covenant

How do I know I have a restrictive covenant

Ways to remove a covenant

Who to use

Removing via Planning Process

Removing via Supreme Court

Determining which option to go with

Listen out for how John ended up at sitting in the Supreme Court thinking they may lose his case...

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Complete the course at your own pace and in your own time, and learn the tips, trips and techniques that Justin has used in all his projects. Find out more at www.propertydevelopertraining.com

 

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Transcription

JustinHello and welcome to episode 81 of the show. Thanks for joining me. Trust you well. I'm doing OK just sitting in another lock down in Melbourne, so it's been another couple of weeks of just sitting at home with the kids around and. Everyone getting a bit bored, but we're working our way through it and we're just about to come out the other side, so fingers crossed that we can continue being open. So fortunately, residential construction has remained open, which has been good for my project because workers continued things are looking good on site. All the scaffolding is come down now so it looks really nice on site without any of the scaffolding around and you can see the designs of the buildings shining through. The interiors are being worked on. Some of the interiors of the. Town houses are just about done is starting on the landscaping. They've poured some of the driveway and the finish line is insight, so it's been quite good. Although there's been the usual issues that have popped up that require some solutions to problems, but that's part of developing so things are moving along there, which is really exciting on my other project. The site has been cleared. It's looking really good. We've submitted our town planning package into council for endorsement, so we're just waiting for them to hopefully stamp that. We've managed to achieve our pre sales which is good and we're just getting ready to start construction. So going through all the financial documentation and getting all the conditions sorted out so everything happening there as well. So it's been a very busy couple of months for me now. One good part about the lock down in Melbourne is that I had a little bit of time to wrap up my training program which has been good and I now have some people in there testing it out. And I'll be opening it up soon to other people. So if you are interested in learning how to develop property then please email me [email protected] and I can send you some more information about the program. I'm sure it's going to be something that people really enjoy now. Speaking of my project updates, be sure to check out my social channels on Insta and Facebook under the handle of property developer podcasts and you can see all my latest project updates. I do video updates about how the sites are looking, so if you want to check out how they're progressing, that's where you can find them. And I also post other property development related news, so go check him out. OK, onto today's guest. A friend of mine, John Marquez, will be familiar to people who listen to the show. John was my very first guest on the show way back in Episode 2 and we also talked to him in episode 12. John is a very active developer, done a number of projects, couple of four units sites a couple of 10 unit sites. He's got quite a few projects happening and we're going to talk about John's experience getting restrictive covenants lifted off property. So this is a conversation we haven't had before on the show. It's quite interesting about how you can get a covenant lifted off a potential development site. So in this conversation with John, we're going to talk about what is a restrictive covenant and how do you know if the land you're looking at has one? Who do you need help from to remove a covenant? And how do you actually go about getting them lifted? So keep an ear out in this conversation for how John ended up sitting in the Supreme Court of Victoria, wondering whether or not he may be losing his case. So this discussion between John and I is just that, a conversation. It's not legal advice about how to get a covenant removed. You need to talk to a good lawyer about getting that done. If it's something that you're thinking of doing anyway, I really enjoyed this chat about restrictive covenants. It's a good one. I'm sure you'll get something out of it, so let's head over to Jaune. John Marquez from Arena equity. John - 0:04:25Welcome back to the Property Developer Podcast. Thanks again Justin. Good to be back for those who joined the podcast a bit late in the piece. Justin - 0:04:37John was actually my very first guest on the show in episode #2 and then you came back and joined us for episode #12. So if you want to find out a bit more about John go back and have a listen to those two episodes. But you've had a pretty interesting property development career so far. You've decided to tackle a couple of interesting projects which we might touch on a couple of them today, but you did a small. For you to project is your first project and then you partnered up with someone and took on some bigger projects. And one of them involved removing a covenant which we're going to talk about today. Removing covenants, but maybe just give us a quick snapshot of what you've been up to since we last spoke. You've definitely had a few more projects under the belt. Well, one of them that I forgot to mention was a trip to the Planning Tribunal, which you weren't successful at. John - 0:05:40So yeah, you've had a pretty colorful developing career. Yeah, that's correct. I mean, it's it's funny, isn't it that when we first start developing and for those of us that have had mentors in the past where sort of told this is what you should look for in relation to a site has let your agents know these dimensions this size. This and that? And then we just find that the properties that we actually come across and end up buying completely curveballs an. In tough markets, sometimes you just have to accept the fact that. You will come across sites with problems and challenges and we've just found that that's been the best learning for us. Yes, I think we last spoke. Justin - 0:06:28You tackling an 8 unit site that's definitely been wrapped up. Or maybe it was a 10 units. I think he did another 10 units site. So then you've got a. I think you're just finishing a four unit site. You've just acquired another 4 unit site, so you've been pretty active. John - 0:06:49Yeah, so as soon as I joined forces with my other business partner we. We just spent the time we both, uh, sorry, tell that an auction where the prices blue beyond anything we thought it would, and so we sort of both had the idea. At the same time that we need to step up to the next level because there's just too many people like this three to four unit sites. Just too much competition, so it's finally as soon as we make that decision. We started finding larger sites quite easily. Things have changed now, but. Yeah, it's quite surprising how quickly we found them. Justin - 0:07:33So I think your first project as a partnership was this. Is that a 10 unit site anyway? Was the site that had a single dwelling covenant. So let's talk about we're going to focus on covenants and removal of them. So let's give you've got two projects that you've done now, so perhaps you could talk us through that first sight, and then we'll move on to the other side. That has had a covenant in, and how they were slightly different. John - 0:08:01OK so the it's funny the first sight. But we actually came across the header covenants with the one dwelling covenant.