First time buyer - problems with Chancel liability!!

thefrogbert

Hello everyone!

Me and my girlfriend are in the process of buying our first house and have come accross a few problems.

We have received all the relevant information and was just about to sign the contracts for completion when we received the results of a Chancel search. Our house is on parish land and therefor is liable if the church decides to ask us to pay for repairs.

We have spent alot of time researching on various forums/websites and know a little bit about it but its all very confusing. Also we know the law is changing in 2013 but are not sure what it is changing to!

Any help would be grateful as we are now very unsure as if it is a good idea to proceed with the purchase!!

Please help!

Doozergirl

How much did that chancel search cost? Was it just an initial one saying you are in an affected parish?

If it was just the initial one then you can pay a reasonably small amount for an indemnity policy which will cover you in the event that the church ever make a claim against you/your property. The last time I bought one it was something like 56 pounds on a property value up to 250,000

The policy is cheap and easy for your solicitor to buy as long as they haven't carried out the full searches - it's unusual for solicitors to do this because the policy is actually cheaper than the full searches.

As long as you have insurance cover it's not worth worrying about. Just ask your solicitor how much the indemnity policy is.

Robert_Sterling_3

The Chancel repair liabilty often crops up.
You can take insurance which pays the liabilty if you have to pay towards the Chancel repair. I came across it a year ago. I was told that it had never been imposed in living memory in my area and the insurance was rather cheap.
I ignored the small risk

thefrogbert

Thanks for your help guys.

It was just the initial search saying we were in an affected parish.

What is the likelihood of the church claiming against us? Have read in some places that if the church claims once, the insurance is not vaild if they want to claim again, and we wouldnt be able to take out any more insurance!

Doozergirl

It's rarely even happened, let alone twice. You've got one of us saying buy the insurance, one saying don't even bother and you're worried that you're going to get hit twice!

Being in an affected parish does not mean that you are even an affected house. Apparantly, about 1 in 3 houses falls into an affect parish, i don't know how many houses in those parishes, but it's not going to be many, just particular land that was tied to the church at some point, I believe.

What the insurance does is try to catch as many people as possible to keep the risk and therefore the premiums down.

Unlike a local authority search where all info is gathered in one place, to find out if a particular property might be affected by a chancel liability is a long and laborious and therefore expensive process. Also, if the property were found to be affected, the premiums would rocket and people really would reconsider buying the house.

So chancelcheck have just got this rubbishy little search that picks out a parish and then charges you 56 quid for peace of mind that you may or may not need.

The insurance could be completely pointless if your house is not affected but it is in your financial interest not to find out.

Completely mindblowing I know. Just buy the insurance and get on with it. Even if the house were potentially affected, the church may simply never ever carry out their right. The chances of you being picked on are probably about the same as being hit by lightning.

Richard_Webster

What Doozergirl says is right. There's now a further twist.....

As the cheapest of these basic searches is £10 + VAT (and many are £15 + VAT) some solicitors like me have managed to arrange a block insurance policy which gives 25 years cover for ordinary properties (without large areas of land) for up to £1million for £10 (no VAT) and perpetual cover for £15. At these prices it is cheaper to insure than even to do the basic search.

At the moment not many firms seem to have this facility, so the norm for many buyers still is as Doozer suggested.

BrownEyedPrincess

I have had a friend which had a claim made against them and they had to sell their to home to pay. Not sure if they had insurance, but the claims DO happen.

Doozergirl

BrownEyedPrincess wrote: »

Not sure if they had insurance

Evidently not.

Sprintz

Sprintz wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hc266/Homes_Under_the_Hammer_Series_12_Episode_29/

Homes under Hammer

i wonder if that lass made it up 'Church Road Law'??

try find that eppy if you can, showed some female lass had bought the indemnity insurance and could be worthwhile...

Woby_Tide

Richard_Webster wrote: »

What Doozergirl says is right. There's now a further twist.....

As the cheapest of these basic searches is £10 + VAT (and many are £15 + VAT) some solicitors like me have managed to arrange a block insurance policy which gives 25 years cover for ordinary properties (without large areas of land) for up to £1million for £10 (no VAT) and perpetual cover for £15. At these prices it is cheaper to insure than even to do the basic search.

At the moment not many firms seem to have this facility, so the norm for many buyers still is as Doozer suggested.

So is this indemnity available on teh open market or only for people who are moving house?

If the latter, why does no-one cover existing householders, surely it's ticking timebomb with 4 years till the 2013 ruling kicks in and people who haven't moved potentially liable for millions(:cool: )

Richard_Webster

As with all specialist legal indemnities it is in practice only available through solicitors and licensed conveyancers, and at this price, only those firms that have such a block policy.

Solicitors are only authorised to deal with these insurances as ancillary to their other work, otherwise we would need specific FSA authorisation. So, sorry, unless you have a solicitor doing some work for you in relation to a property you are unlikley to be able to have this insurance arranged for you, and certainly not at the price I quoted.