Positive covenants don't run with the land; therefore they're not registrable.

But it's easy for a seller's conveyancer to overlook positive covenants.

Covenants can be financial, information, ownership, affirmative, negative or positive covenants.

A positive covenant is a kind of agreement relating to land, where the covenant requires positive expenditure by the person bound, in order to fulfil its terms.

Courts were particularly chary with "positive covenants" (which might require a landowner's expenditure and could not be fulfilled by doing nothing) and "negative easements" (which unlike covenants might be acquired without agreement).

If a seller's unregistered title on a purchase is subsequently registered, the seller's conveyancer, on a sale, should peruse the original conveyance to the seller (returned with the land or charge certificate) for positive covenants.

If there is a positive covenant, not only should this be referred to but also the buyer should be required to enter into an indemnity covenant in the conveyance to him or her in respect of the future observance thereof.

They said, "We find that the violence of the process used with us by the leadership, the lack of respect and understanding of our motivation for the good of the whole church by many in the community are for us insurmountable barriers to reconstruction of a positive covenant relationship."

The Planning Acts, the Local Government Acts, and one or two Private Acts give powers to local authorities to enter into agreements containing much wider matters concerning the use of land; these include the payment of money and the enforcement of positive covenants.

The draftsman should, therefore, insert in the lease a positive covenant to keep the demised property open for trading during normal hours (rather than relying on a negative user covenant "not to use the property otherwise than as.", which would permit the tenant not to use the property at all).

In the case of positive covenants contained in transfers of registered property, it's the practice of the Registry to bind up in the land or charge certificate, particulars of such covenants, because the transfer containing them is retained in the Registry, and so the registered proprietor's solicitor could otherwise easily overlook them.