Surrey County Council v Bredero Homes Ltd [1993] 3 All ER 705

Two plaintiff councils owned of land. The councils contracted to sell the entire site to Defendant for £1.52m, subject to development covenants, which required development in accordance with a brief which had been submitted.

Defendant subsequently completed the development by building more houses than had been approved and without obtaining modification of the covenants.

Plaintiffs had been aware of the breach but did not seek injunctions or specific performance. Instead they raised an action for damages. Plaintiff sought damages for the amount that they would reasonably have charged for the modification.

CA held that since damages were used for placing Plaintiff in the position that they would have been in had the contract been fulfilled, the damages here could only be nominal.