Adjacent landowner sought to enforce deed restrictions against current property owner to prohibit the sale of used cars and repair of trucks on the premises. Current property owner planned to build a new car dealership on the site with the obvious related business of sale of used cars and truck repair being appurtenant to the new car franchise. The trial court ruled that even though the restriction clearly prohibited the specific uses of ‘used car sales’ and ‘truck repair’ because the restrictions did not prohibit the general use of a new car dealership, those operations appurtenant to a new car dealership would therefore not violate the restrictions. Landowner appealed arguing that Kentucky law did not support the trial court’s determination. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court and the supreme court denied discretionary review. Thus, in Kentucky it now appears that the failure to prohibit a general use (new car franchise which includes the sale and repair of new and used cars and trucks) in a deed restriction will allow a specific use even though the specific use was specifically prohibited (i.e., no used car sales and no truck repair) in the restriction.
Real estate/deed restrictions/prohibited use
