Buyer responsible for covenants?

[dammit]

I'm looking at purchasing a house in a new estate which has already been built by a builder, everything is complete and they are marketing it as a brand new/spec home. The builder has bought the land, designed & built the house and now sells it to move onto the next.

In the contract it says 'the buyer acknowledges receiving, reading and agrees to take over all responsibilities and understood copies of the Covenant requirements relating to this property'.

Is this a normal thing, I feel like it's not right because the builder designed the house, built it, did everything, shouldn't they ensure it was all done to meet the covenants?

I have a copy of all the covenants, theres about 30+ of them, and seem quite strict - things like driveway slopes, landscaping out the front, external facade materials, eaves/roof pitch/colour,

If the builder resides/builds only in this suburb/estate area, should I be expecting them to warrant that the place was built to meet covenants? Because the house is now built/complete, would there be something like a certificate from the estate company saying they confirm it meets their requirements?

 

[lizzie]

for the physical aspect, council wouldn't have allowed the design of the building to fall outside the covenants so i believe you are okay there ... the covenants go with the site - of which the building is part of it.

i would suggest that the acknowledgement of covenants is to cover the builder in relation to him advising you of what the covenants are, so that you are legally aware that in the future you can't paint your house hot pink or errect a large bird avairy.

do you feel there is something with the house that falls outside these guidelines?

 

[dammit]

thanks lizzie - I did a bit more reading last night and saw some advice on a few solicitors websites for sellers saying they need to put a clause in so the buyer must adhere to any covenants in place to cover themselves, so I guess this is how it came about.

I think everything with the house is fine, the only few items that raised my eyebrow were things like front landscaping - 50% of the front yard must be landscaped other than turf, and the front facade not being more than 70% of the one material etc.