Chancel Repair Liability

jordy23uk

Just in the process of purchasing a property in Cornwall and the searches revealed that the house is subject to Chancel Repair Liability.

This means that the house owner could be liable to repairs to the parish Church under an ancient act!

I have been adivsed to take out insurance against this but have decided not to. Is that a wise move?

further info - http://www.chancelrepair.org/index.html

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Twopints

People can be and are made to pay - see attached link

Chancel Repairs

Also, their appeal failed and the bill (including legal costs) is now £500,000

Appeal failed

So, there is a risk and a precedent. How much is the insurance?

jordy23uk

the insurance was quoted at £68 which i believe is a one off payment.

It depends on the value of the house and the size of land.

prudryden

Twopints wrote:

People can be and are made to pay - see attached link

Chancel Repairs

Also, their appeal failed and the bill (including legal costs) is now £500,000

Appeal failed

So, there is a risk and a precedent. How much is the insurance?

I expect, but to not know for a fact, that this was the only incident in the last 70 years and that there was exceptional circumstances which we do not know about. I also believe that because the cost of the insurance is so low that insurance companies do not believe that there is much risk and that it is money for old rope.

RufusFrog_2

jordy23uk wrote:

Just in the process of purchasing a property in Cornwall and the searches revealed that the house is subject to Chancel Repair Liability.

There's another thread about this on this board (with some unhelpful ranting by yours truly but some very good stuff from a real conveyancer) but I just wanted to say that the basic (£12) search will only discover if the property is in an area (parish?) where this Liability is registered. A more expensive survey (£100ish) will show if your actual property is affected. So the chances are overwhelmingly that it is not.

But, and it's a big but, it is cheaper to buy an indemnity policy against being charged for chancel repair than actually find out if your particularly property is affected. Also if the thorough survey/search finds out the property is liable, the price of the indemnity insurance will rocket (and you may not be able to get it at all). What's more, if you have the detailed survey carried out before buying the house and it IS liable, it becomes virtually unsellable and the sellers may sue you for acting adversely against them (sorry I'm not a legal person so I'm unsure of the actual wording).

There's nothing to stop you researching the history of the land you are buying and satisfying yourself that it has never been church property but if you are mortgaging, your mortgager may insist on you having the insurance anyway (as if you get presented with a chancel repair bill you cannot afford, the church could seize your assets and you'll never be able to repay your mortgage debt - again not a lawyer so there is some wooliness here but I think that's how it works).

My solicitor's viewer was that the SELLER normally pays for the insurance so why isn't yours trying for this? (However we just refused the initial search, as we don't wish to enrich insurance companies for no good reason).

matto

The search is a joke. It moreorless just tells you that you live in a parish. Find me someone who doesn't live in a parish (in England and Wales)!

Unless your house is called Glebe something it seems very unlikely this liability would be attached.

Also if you live on an estate the liability would most likely be shared by all on the estate.

jordy23uk

i asked the solicitor to go back to the vendor and ask if they will pay it, unlikely they will, or if a policy exists already.

the house is 3 years old and built on an old gas works. i researched the parish boundary and it covers the whole town. does that mean that all properties would be affected by this, regardless whether they are 10 metres or 1000 metres from the Church?!

It sounds ridiculous so i think its best ignored?

Richard_Webster

There's another recent thread on this - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=377055