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09 June 2023 / Michael Ranson , Taylor Briggs
Issue: 8028 / Categories: Features , Property , Covid-19
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Covenants: hostile to home working?

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The rise of home working has created an uncertain landscape for property practitioners: Michael Ranson & Taylor Briggs report on ‘business use’ &  the modification of restrictive covenants
  • Hodgson v Cook is a recent Upper Tribunal authority on the interrelationship between home working and covenants preventing business use.
  • This article explores that case and the tribunal’s jurisdiction to modify or discharge such covenants.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about numerous changes to our daily lives, one of which was in respect of our working habits. According to the Office for National Statistics, despite ‘work from home’ guidance having been lifted as long ago as January 2022, almost a third of working adults reported that they worked partly at home and partly in an office elsewhere, with over 15% working from home exclusively, between September 2022 and January 2023.

This raises a range of legal issues, including data protection compliance, buildings and contents insurance requirements, planning control and the tax treatment of homes which have now

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