Anyone with chancel repair liability experience?

yorkshire_terrier_owner

macarena123 wrote: »

So while I take your point about mitigating risk, this all smacks of insurance companies making a lot of money against an incredibly remote contingency....

I don't doubt it for a second.

The only thing that that pushed me into buying it (apart from my lender insisting on it) was that having spent my entire life involved in churches in one way or another, I know the Church of England can be pretty ruthless when they get a bee on their bonnet, and with my luck I would probably buy the only other house in England that they decided to pursue!!!

fc123

daedalus wrote: »

Hello
I have made an offer to buy a flat and the solicitors searches have uncovered the fact that it is subject to chancel repair liability. Apparently I can buy an insurance policy from the solicitor to protect againt this eventuality. My question is does anyone know how often people are actually called upon to make a payment, how unlikely is it? Could it be just an opportunity to make money for the solicitor flogging insurance?
I hope someone will be able to provide useful input.
Thank you

macarena123 wrote: »

I had this come up and worried about it. My solicitor's take was

1) Even though the cutoff is Oct this year for the Church to register it. he would still expect to have seen an entry at the Land Registry
2) I am buying a flat in London, i.e. a very built up area, so any liability would be spread across thousands of properties, so minimal risk. If I were in the countryside it might be different

So I have given it a miss.

What happened was a few years back there was very high profile case where a couple got done for this and ended up having to sell their house. This sparked a mini-industry in selling insurance.

Only you can decide whether or not to get it, but be aware that these companies are preying on people's insecurities

Have a chat with your solictor and see what he says

Came up in our sale process of the house we exchanged on today.

We were quoted the above case too however, our solicitor said some charities connected with the church could go for it and would do as you only need a smart wizzy financial go-getter involved to sTart the ball rolling.

£50 for ours.....and, in the scheme of things...not a huge sum for peace of mind.

Moby_Tide

fc123 wrote: »

We were quoted the above case too however, our solicitor said some charities connected with the church could go for it and would do as you only need a smart wizzy financial go-getter involved to sTart the ball rolling.
.

I think you'll find the smart whizzy financial go-getter works for the Chancel Liability Insurers as they've managed to get lots of people to pay £50 to cover payouts that could apparently run into millions for the next 25 years...... They must be VERY confident they aren't expecting to pay out much

fc123

Moby_Tide wrote: »

I think you'll find the smart whizzy financial go-getter works for the Chancel Liability Insurers as they've managed to get lots of people to pay £50 to cover payouts that could apparently run into millions for the next 25 years...... They must be VERY confident they aren't expecting to pay out much

funny you say that as that is exactly what we thought £50 seemed very cheap so the risk must be very low .....however, we decided to put the £50 in as you never know when a second wheeze will be thought up by someone else.

chappers

macarena123 wrote: »

Have a chat with your solictor and see what he says

He would be derelict in his duty if he told you not to bother, no matter how small the risk, not to mention it would be totally out of character for a solicitor to give you a definite negative answer if there was any risk

DATMAN_2

Solicitor has no choice if you are having a mortgage as your lender's instructions in the CLM handbook is that you must have the insurance in place if the chancel check search reveals it is in a risk area.

If you are a cash buyer - it is your choice.

JaneChoo

Hiya, myself and my husband bought a flat last year and we found ourselves in a similar position. After doing some investigating online as to what chancel repair liability is, I found out that its irrelevant where you live in regards to proximity to a church and anyone can be effected regardless of living in a flat or house.
I came across the Wallbanks case where the family paid hundreds of thousands of pounds after ignoring the potential liability; so in my opinion I think for the sake of £50 or so its worth not taking the risk. We contacted a company called CLS who were very helpful and sorted this out for us - I think you can order the insurance over the phone as well as online.

greatgimpo

allybee101 wrote: »

My insurance was paid for by previous owners and it covers next set of buyers as well.

On the paperwork it's known as 'in perpetuity'.

tim123456789

fc123 wrote: »

funny you say that as that is exactly what we thought £50 seemed very cheap so the risk must be very low .....however, we decided to put the £50 in as you never know when a second wheeze will be thought up by someone else.

Well the risk was very low when you were selling to the set of people who don't know whether they have a liability of not, knowing that (statistically) most of them wont.

This wont be the case going forward when everybody will know if they have a liability or not and only those that do will want to insure against the risk of it being exercised. The 99.9% who know that they have no liability wont be buying your insurance anymore.

The costs of this insurance for those that need it, is only going one way!