Chancel Repair Liability

Hippychick wrote:

The House of Lords once ruled against a couple whose house had chancel repair liability, they had to pay nearly 100k to the church I think the case was Aston Cantlow PCC v Wallbank. I would assume the chances of this actually happening to you is very slim but wouldn't you rather the piece of mind?

Ask the sellers to pay for the insurance it should be about £113.00 (one off cost) and will cover you and your successors in title for 25 years, after all it's their house which is liable at the moment and it is virtually unsaleable without the policy. If you are buying with a mortgage it is very likely that your lender will insist on the policy.

insist that the seller pays for the policy then you can proceed without any worries.

Virtually unsaleable? My god, if people really believe that then Chancelcheck are going to be laughing their blimming socks off.

But my view:

a) not all lenders require it at all, check first
b) why should a seller indeminfy a house they are selling? I still never understand this point, if you want to cover your !!!!, cover your own !!!! more for piece of mind that you have the correct cover.
c) if it's such a big risk with potential outlays of £100k as per the above case, how come Chancelcheck only charge £4.52 per year for cover that potentially could cost 'thousands' per policy holder, they must be very confident they aren't paying out on (m)any policies
d) if you read the original post it doesn't say they have liability, it sayd 'might' which is another part of the con, a lot of properties could well end up not under liability regardless
e) with falling church attendances I'd be interested to see the Church of England bang the nail in it's own coffin by !!!!!! on the very people it needs to keep it going

solicitors don't get commission, or if they are then get new ones as they evidently aren't working in your best interests.

Our solicitor was quite adamant about indemnities, he was quite happy to issue them but was honest to say that in all his 30 years he only ever once actually advised someone to get one, the rest of the time he gave people the option but advised that he didn't believe they would ever need it.

Plus bear in mind that having repair liability attached to a property is actually no guarantee that it will ever be invoked

it would be incorrect to assume that as the charge could be placed on a single property technically, but it's whether it's a risk you're prepared to take

(I'd also be surprised if the Churches do press ahead with it why they wouldn't get as many people liable as they can whilst they have the chance, putting their eggs in one basket would be daft on their behalf)

That said if you are buying a property with 'Glebe' in the name then be more cautious and make more enquiries

"ChancelCheck" (brand name) is only a check that tells you whether your property is within one of the 5,200 parishes where there continues to be a potential for chancel repair liability. In order to clarify if your property (plot) falls within the index records, it is strongly advised that you carry out a Chancel Repair Search. Most solicitors will carry out a parish liability search and either take out insurance or carry out the chancel repair search. The decision is down to the purchaser really. If the property is highlighted in the Chancel Repair Search the cost of a potential claim can be worked out in todays money. I have heard that if you you decide to go down the route of a Chancel Repair Search and your property is indeed affected you can not go down the insurance route as you have highlighted the risk. Better off doing the parish liability search, then make the decision of insurance for the perceived risk or to know for sure and have the chancel repair search