Potential Chancel Repair Liability affect value of house?

FireWyrm

OK....so where do we get this indemnity insurance?

I was offered it when we bought the house but at the time £280 seemed a bit steep. Apparently I was correct since some posters have quoted £14 and £25 but where do we get this from?

Richard_Webster

OK....so where do we get this indemnity insurance?

I was offered it when we bought the house but at the time £280 seemed a bit steep. Apparently I was correct since some posters have quoted £14 and £25 but where do we get this from?

Depends whether your solicitors has a block policy or not - with block policies the admin is reduced and the premiums are lower - so mine are £10 for 25 yaers and £15 in perpetuity - but larger firms will have more cases and get even cheaper premiums with economies of scale. if the solicitors still insist on doing the searches and then getting one-off polices they are bound to be more expensive.

FireWyrm

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Depends whether your solicitors has a block policy or not - with block policies the admin is reduced and the premiums are lower - so mine are £10 for 25 yaers and £15 in perpetuity - but larger firms will have more cases and get even cheaper premiums with economies of scale. if the solicitors still insist on doing the searches and then getting one-off polices they are bound to be more expensive.

Thats useful information. As I said, we were quoted £280 by our solicitor. I didnt understand the implications at the time and so turned them down. How do I get the insurance now, for a more sensible price?

Richard_Webster

Thats useful information. As I said, we were quoted £280 by our solicitor. I didnt understand the implications at the time and so turned them down. How do I get the insurance now, for a more sensible price?

Difficult if you are not buying/selling/remortgaging and have a solicitor involved who can arrange the policy ancillary to that. On the other hand a lot of people think the risk is so small they don't worry about it.

I bought my present house in 1981 before this whole business became live again and do not have any indemnity insurance - I just accept the very small risk.

A lot of the problem is that mortgage lenders are so risk averse they will not come out and say they are not concerned about it - even though many say they are not interested in environmental search results when in some cases those are more likely than the Chancel issue to make selling difficult.

FireWyrm

Thanks Richard

I've been searching around all morning and whilst I take your point, that it is a small risk, no one can tell me how small? I mean, are we talking being hit by a bus or being hit by a meteorite risk? More to the point, that couple in the paper ended up loosing their house over this and I'm shocked the church allowed it to get that far..I mean, so much for Christian Charity.

I live in a village and am reasonably close to the local church. I dont know how to find out if there is a liability, but the information claims that if you try, this alerts the church to make a claim! Shocking.

I've been looking all morning and I've found the following website. What I'm not sure is, whether what they are offering is the correct product?

http://www.clsl.co.uk/contentmanagement/Page.aspx?PageID=379