Chancel Repair Liability

Oxymoron

Hi there, not sure this is in the right section but here goes.
Has anyone heard about 'Chancel Repair Liability'.
Apparently it is a medieval charge on homes built on certain Parish lands. The Parish church can charge you for repairs to the chancel of that church. It only applies to Church of England churches. Has anyone got any information on this archaic law that expects everyone whether they are religous or not, to pay for the up-keep of Church of England churches. From the info that I have seen the value of your property will be affected by one of these Chancel Repair Liability Orders being in force in your area.
There was a case in 2003 where a couple had to pay for the repairs of their local church, £325 000 believe it or not. Our morgage lender will not lend unless we take out insurance to cover this scandalous theivery. So if anyone has anymore info I will be very pleased to hear from you. Thanks.
PS where could we find the info on the church that we may be liable too. Thanks again.

HappyMJ

Take out the insurance then...It's very cheap (at about £40) and then your mortgage provider will lend against the property.

It's virtually impossible to see of a liability exists as it isn't always connected to your local church it could be a church many miles away.

kingstreet

If you dig too much and establish there is a liability you must report it to the Land Registry and you will make the property uninsurable.

You can get a mini search done which establishes if any property nearby has been subject to a liability.

There is a thread about Staffordshire on HBR&S.

Oxymoron

Thanks for that. The problem is that the solicitor has already delved too deeply and have dicovered that there is a Chancel Liability. They have offered to sort some insurance out for us but as has been quoted earlier the property will be unisurable and as such in the future may be unsellable. I have asked all of the neighbours and they have never heard of it. Also a friend bought a house just two years ago on the same estate and he did not have the same problem. So as I understand it if this particular house is liable then all of the homes in the local area will also be liable and as such will also have the potential to be unsellable in the future.I believe that it only applies to churches built before the Reformation in 1536. I am hard pressed to find any churches that old anywhere in this area.Does anyone know how I would find this info. I have asked the solicitor for this info but I need to know now really.

grey_gym_sock

i suspect that the search which has been carried out is a vague 1 which just determines that the property is in a parish in which somebody might have chancel liability. if that's all that's known, the risk is still insurable, and should still be cheap.

it's only a detailed search, concluding that this property definitely is liable, that leaves it uninsurable.

(i'm not sure what the point of the vague search is, when you could just take out cheap insurance without incurring the cost of searching.)

Land_Registry

Picking up on the point made by Kingstreet, I can confirm that there is no requirement to report the existence of chancel repair liability to Land Registry. The Land Register relating to the property may already contain information about Chancel Repair Liability and this is a clear indication that a liability exists, rather than whether or not it is legally enforceable. If the Land Register doesn’t mention Chancel Repair Liability, you can’t just assume it doesn’t apply to your land.

More information about chancel repairs is available from the Charity Commission and certain diocesan board websites. Some chancel repair liabilities records are held by The National Archives. A search facility is available for the records they hold - see www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for more information.

kingstreet

Sorry.

I was parroting Mr Webster's post from 18/10;-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=56610009&postcount=4

The £110 search tells you whether the particular property has a liability and if it does you have a duty to register this at the Land Registry, so it is not a good idea to do that search in case it comes up with a result you don't want!

The £18 search only tells you if the property is in an area where there are some properties with the liability. You then take out insurance if there is a possible liability

Full thread referred to earlier in this one;-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/57097487#Comment_57097487

Thrugelmir

Oxymoron wrote: »

Has anyone heard about 'Chancel Repair Liability'.

Yes. When we bought our current property this issue arose.

We paid a one off indemnity insurance against a claim being made against us.

maninthestreet

http://radiac.net/diary/id/1301/

Oxymoron

Thanks for that maninthestreet please keep the info coming

Oxymoron

Me again.
I have dicovered that the area we propose to purchase our new house in, was once part of a parish that was designated in 1589. This was a huge area of land that has subsequently being split into many smaller parishes. The present parish in the area was formed in 1846. From this I believe that my new house should be exempt from this charade as this Chancel theivery does not apply to parishes formed after 1536.
I hope I am right can anyone confirm this.
Many thanks