Covenants on Victorian titles, in plain English

Somewhere in the title search attached to your Section 32, you might meet a paragraph of dense 1920s prose about what shall and shall not be erected upon the said land. That is a restrictive covenant, and despite the antique language, it is fully alive.

What is a restrictive covenant?

A restrictive covenant is a private restriction on how land can be used, recorded on the title and binding on every owner of the land, past, present, and future. It was typically created when land was first subdivided: the original developer sold each lot subject to rules designed to keep the estate consistent, and those rules run with the land from that day forward.

The key word is private. A covenant is not a council rule and not part of the planning scheme. It sits alongside zoning as a completely separate layer of restriction, which means a project the council would happily permit can still be inconsistent with a covenant on the title.

The covenants you actually see

On Victorian residential titles, a few patterns come up again and again:

• Single-dwelling covenants. Only one dwelling may be built on the lot. This is the big one for anyone thinking about a second unit, a dual occupancy, or a subdivision.
• Building material covenants. Walls of brick or stone, no timber construction, or in older estates a prohibition on certain roofing materials.
• Value or size covenants. A dwelling costing not less than a stated amount (in decades-old currency) or exceeding a minimum floor area.
• Use covenants. No quarrying, no commercial activity, or no further subdivision of the lot.

The wording is often generations old, but age does not switch a covenant off. A 1950s single-dwelling covenant reads as quaint right up until it intersects with a townhouse development plan.

Where do you find covenants when buying?

Covenants appear in the register search as encumbrances, usually with a dealing number, and the Section 32 should include the text of the covenant or the instrument that created it. Three reading steps make it manageable:

1. Find the covenant on the register search and note the dealing number.
2. Read the actual wording, not just the summary. The precise words decide what is restricted, and old covenants can be narrower or broader than they first appear.
3. Check which land benefits. Covenants are enforceable by the owners of the land that holds the benefit, frequently the surrounding lots from the original subdivision.

If the wording is ambiguous, and covenant drafting from 1935 often is, that is a question for your conveyancer rather than a guess. Interpreting a covenant against your intended use of the property is squarely legal work.

Covenant vs zoning: which one wins?

Neither cancels the other, and a buyer needs to clear both. The planning scheme decides what the council can approve. The covenant decides what the title permits privately. A block zoned for higher density that carries a single-dwelling covenant is a classic Victorian trap: the zoning invites a project the covenant then rules out. Checking the two together, zone, overlays, and title restrictions as one picture, is one of the most valuable things a professional review of the Section 32 does.

Can a covenant be removed or varied?

There are formal pathways: an application to the Supreme Court, a planning-scheme process, or the agreement of every owner who holds the benefit. All of them are slow, uncertain, and costly enough that the practical answer for a buyer is to assume the covenant stays. If your plans for the property depend on a covenant being removed, that is a high-stakes legal question to resolve with a solicitor before signing, not after settlement.

Summary

A restrictive covenant is a private rule on the title that limits how the land can be used, created at subdivision and binding on every subsequent owner. It operates independently of zoning, so check both layers before forming plans for a property. Find the covenant in the register search, read its exact wording, and put anything that touches your intentions in front of your conveyancer before you sign. For everything else hiding in the statement, the complete Section 32 guide has the full tour.

Sources

• Land Use Victoria: Property and land titles information: the land registry where restrictive covenants are recorded on the Certificate of Title.
• Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic), section 32: the Vendor's Statement requirement to disclose covenants and restrictions.

Sources verified 25 July 2026. Removing a covenant is a specialist legal process.