Chancel Repair Liability

Woby_Tide

casper_g wrote: »

No, LittleTed's post implies everyone who bought/buys before Oct 2013 should have checked and bought insurance if potentially liable, not that everyone should have bought insurance.

Fair enough. How likely is it that every single household in the country has had the check done then? As opposed to only the houses that have changed hands in the last 10 years. Why are existing long term houseowners not being approached to have these checks done?

gauly

jdurnall wrote: »

my wife and i are currently buying a property in an area which may be subject to chancel repair liability. we will take out the liability insurance, which is obviously a no brainer. my real concern is that before october 2013 the local parish will list an interest against my property and therefore render it unsellable in the future!

I'm must admit I'm also puzzled about the chancel repair check you have done on a house when you purchase it (fortunately ours came back negative - no chancel repair liability even though we are right next door to a medieval church!).

I thought there was a good chance our check would come back as potentially liable. In that case our solicitor's advice was not to do any further checks but to take out insurance - which is cheap if you aren't certain you are liable. If you do the checks and find out you are definitely liable then the insurance is extremely expensive.

What puzzles me is this: if you don't do any further checks and your house does get registered as liable in 2013 then even with the insurance - even the type that can be passed on to future buyers - then the house would lose loads of value. Possibly even be unsellable. Why would you take this risk?

Surely you should always have the full check done (not go for the insurance option) and not buy the house if it is definitely liable? Of course if you did this the vendors of the house wouldn't be exactly thrilled because they would now know the house was liable to chancel repair and you would be leaving them with an unsellable house!

junglist_grans_2

jdurnall wrote: »

my wife and i are currently buying a property in an area which may be subject to chancel repair liability. we will take out the liability insurance, which is obviously a no brainer. my real concern is that before october 2013 the local parish will list an interest against my property and therefore render it unsellable in the future!

Been trawling the internet all night with the exact same concern as above - shame there's no answer, anyone?

junglist_grans_2

Getting more and more concerned by the above. Anyone know what todo? Seems my best move would be to do the full search (£150 i think) and then if it's definatly liable pull out leaving the seller in a nightmare position:( must be better options? Surely this has effected millions of people?

Richard_Webster

2013 then even with the insurance - even the type that can be passed on to future buyers - then the house would lose loads of value.

Not necessarily because the insurance will cover the possibility of a claim. This is the same for all indemnity insurance - if the insurance is OK the property does not lose value.

junglist_grans_2

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Not necessarily because the insurance will cover the possibility of a claim. This is the same for all indemnity insurance - if the insurance is OK the property does not lose value.

At the moment the insurance is very cheap, but if you make the church list it could well be very expensive. A bit like trying to insure a house against subsidence - if you've never had it then it's cheap, but a house with a history of subsidence is nearly uninsurable and house value drops accordingly.

Richard_Webster

If you get perpetual cover now and the "rights" have not been registered then registration later does not invalidate the insurance unless you did anything to encourage the registration to take place.

gauly

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If you get perpetual cover now and the "rights" have not been registered then registration later does not invalidate the insurance unless you did anything to encourage the registration to take place.

The longest lasting insurance I was offered was for 25 years and with a limit of £100k total payments. If you are buying a house to live in probably until you retire then 25 years isn't long enough - and in 25 years time £100k may not even be a great deal of money.

I also think the house will lose value with a definite Chancel Repair Liability on it. It would be like a house liable to flooding or next to a electricity pylon/mobile phone mast. Simply the fact that a large percentage of the population wouldn't even walk through the door for a viewing would decrease it's value.

henpecked1

An interesting point. A house we are buying has a chancel liability but the church in question is for sale

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-12414978.html

we will prob be offered insurance, however, i am in a quandry:

1) the church is being flogged in a need of repair as you can see
2) if it doesnt sell, they may want to do it up

question is - is this liability worth covering?

Running_Horse

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but thought liability only applied to C of E, not the Methodists who are from the independent non-conformist tradition. Are you sure the liability doesn't apply to a 900 year old church down the road?