chancel repair indemnity

planemad

We are in the process of purchasing a repossession property and the solicitor has requested that we get the seller (major bank) to purchased a chancel repair indemnity insurance policy.

It turn out that in the area we are buying in the church have actively and lawfully been seeking money from certain freehold property owners for the up keep of local churches.
They are allowed to do this until 2013 according to my solicitor.

This is a new one on me, has anyone else heard of this.

Thanks in advance

no1gymbunny

It is true, I'm afraid. I think it's called an ecclesiastical tie. If the church needs, say, a new roof, then the locals will have to foot the bill, or part of it. In this day and age though, people move house a lot more often than we used to so the chances are you'll move before it's needed!

barrooo

I agree, as a seller last year I had to sort out this type of insurance, as the local church HAD actually managed to get money from the residents. It was very new at the time and I hadn't heard of it myself, but apparently its becoming more standard.
The only bit of good news is that the cost should be minimal in comparision to the price of the house, flat etc

SquatNow

barrooo wrote: »

I agree, as a seller last year I had to sort out this type of insurance, as the local church HAD actually managed to get money from the residents. It was very new at the time and I hadn't heard of it myself, but apparently its becoming more standard.
The only bit of good news is that the cost should be minimal in comparision to the price of the house, flat etc

What was new at the time?

The laws have been around for centuries and should have been struck out decades ago.

It's only recently, with the christian churches in disrepair and the religious groups too broke (due to low donations and lots of big child abuse compensation payouts) to fund repairs, that the rules have been used.

In ye olde days the church would never have used the rules. At first the lord of the manor owned all the houses, and the church didn't want to pi ss him off, and later at the church-goers bought properties, the church could get money off them as they were all too poor.

With easy credit and high house values, the churches decided it was time to tap the local up for some cash.

wallbash

Selling house in St Albans ( down the road from you ..SquatNow )
will cost us £107 for the chancel repair indemnity insurance policy.

Wot a rip off.:mad:

Josepina

Well we decided not to bother. Our sellers said they wouldn't pay for it and there are lots of houses in our chancel so we decided if the church asked for cash it would be divided between all the other residents so minimal.
I reckon just another excuse for solicitors to be able to ask for more cash.

McKneff

its atrocious that the churches act like this. They (all of them) are richer than we can possibly imagine. As far as i remember someone told me that the Church of England owned all the land that the Metro Centre is built on.
its a world where its a case of getting as much money out of as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. Personally i am sick to death of peoples greed. i am sick of rip off tactics, i am sick of people thinking that other people are stupid enough to fall for it. Unfortunatley some people do and its a shame that those people are usually the people who can least afford it.

SquatNow

Josepina wrote: »

Well we decided not to bother. Our sellers said they wouldn't pay for it and there are lots of houses in our chancel so we decided if the church asked for cash it would be divided between all the other residents so minimal.
I reckon just another excuse for solicitors to be able to ask for more cash.

It's a genuine insurance policy.

It seems expensive, but.... often the amount of mney the curch can claim is nearly unlimited.

Suppose they need a new roof and it costs £2million.

And there are 20 houses in the chancel.

That's £100k each, non-negotiable.

ds1980

in the same position im near st albans and ours is only £70 though. Ball ache but for once squat is right.

Richard_Webster

OP needed to do a search because there are several threads all about this issue e.g. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1064011

barrooo

Yeah Squat I know its an 'ancient law' but according to my solicitor its only recently become an issue when purchasing a property, and at the time of selling, the church had gone to court to obtain the monies and obviously won