Church of englad land? surveys back!

movingforward2010

just been to my solicitors as he had our surveys back, apparently our house is on church of england land, and we have to pay £60 to cover us for £250,000 for 25yrs because apparently they can claim for maintance or something, even tho there is no church and hasnt been one there for about 300-400 yrs. . its a new bulid estate, has anyone else had to pay this?
also theres wood areas to 3 sides of the estate which all the people on the estate are now responsible for(30 houses) and have to pay £110 per year to the management company for maintaing it plus extra costs if necessary, it was never mentioned before about any extra costs!!

(ive justed copied and pasted from the mortage board as i couldnt be bothered to write in again:o )

matto

Presuming this is like most other cases the CofE land thing is a bit of a con. The language they use is something like it is part of historic parish - which is true of everywhere in UK. You are simply buying insurance in case your land happens to have a chancel repair liability attached to it. If it did have a chancel repair liability you wouldn't be able to get the insurance.

movingforward2010

so if no church exisits now and the land has houses on it, what eacactly would i have to pay to be repaired? if the situation arose of course.

just sounds like a ripp off, ive paid enough money already with out this stupid pointless CofE thing

matto

I believe it's a liability connected with land that used to be owned by monks who were responsible for the upkeep of the chancel of the church. The liability to pay for repairs still attaches to the land. Some people have been hit with GBP10,000 for repairs. The church doesn't have to be on the doorstep. Its a bit of an anachronism based on ancient laws. Parish councils are under a duty to identify any land that may have this liability attached. In a few years unless this liability is recorded on the land registry it will not be able to be claimed.

drmjafri

i am about to buy a property worth 300,000

my surveyor has asked me to pay 150 pounds as chancel insuarance for me and my succesoors who buy the property.

i read about Chancel repair on internet and also about Chancelcheck.

I am worried that as rules are not clear- there may rules changes in future ( from now till 2013) which may make this insuarance invalid. I am worried and having 2nd thoughts of buying the property??//

any help please

bye

matto

Chancelcheck is a bit of con. They charge you £10 to tell you that your house is part of a historic parish, which is true of anywhere in England. They then sell you insurance in the very unlikely event that you may fall foul of this liability. Unless the house is called "glebe" or "rectory" or is/was part of a glebe farm then it is extremely unlikely to have any liability.

Incidentally if your house is part of new estate and there was a liability it would be most likely spread between all houses on the estate.

aimex

the problem is if youre selling, your buyers solicitors may insist on you taking out this insurance. it is pretty pointless as this liability could potentially arise on every house in the uk, as most of them fall within a parish. but at the end of the day if your buyers are asking for it, in the end theyre not gonna go ahead unless you get it. id say no first of all - well ask your solicitors to, stating that every house in the uk has a potential liabiliy, and then take it from there, if they still go on about it i guess youll have to take it out.

GabbaGabbaHey

matto wrote:

Unless the house is called "glebe" or "rectory" or is/was part of a glebe farm then it is extremely unlikely to have any liability.

Unfortunately it's not as easy as that.

Have a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3023276.stm

Woby_Tide

GabbaGabbaHey wrote:

Unfortunately it's not as easy as that.

Have a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3023276.stm

erm that''ll be the Wallbanks, the owners of 'Glebe' Farm then?

our solicitors opinion recently was he strongly suspects that in the majority of cases, i.e. in residential areas rather than rural councils that is, that it's highly unlikely to be brought into play, publicity being a major factor given decling church numbers. His opinion was to say 'no' to our buyers (they paid themselves, to cover themselves in all honesty, the Chancelcheck policy gave us no benefit). Likewise we did not bother with ours despite it being pretty likely to be under liability as the Parish church is one of the oldest in teh country

david29dpo

And people wonder why i am atheist !

drmjafri

I got this reply from my solicitor when i queried whether future change in law would invalidate my insurance

the reply from my solicitor is- She reassured me however she also mentions-

Once the insurance is taken out, only changes in law can invalidate the existing policy

which is exactly my worry.

so friends what to do. help please