Asked to pay for use of church when selling?

Graham_Devon

Thanks, but they do have to pay it, there is no way out. Just puts the cost of moving up even further! Costs of moving are now 30% fee's, 70% state!!

CB1979_2

well they say God repays in mysterious ways, looks like you've found out he charges in mysterious ways too! lol

but for the sake of under £200 is it really that big a deal?

Hermione54

why the hell should churches be funded by taxation?

Because they are historic buildings that belong to the whole community and cost a shed load of money to maintain. The church should hand them all over to state ownership and rent back the ones it needs. A shrinking handful of mainly pensioner churchgoers are being asked to shoulder a huge liability through pathetic coffee mornings and futile bazaars to provide a resource which 70% of the country expect to be there for the three or four occasions in their life times that they need it. I'm sorry Graham's parents have been stung for this. I don't understand what it is, I've never come across it before and it is clearly unfair. But society at large will have to take responsibility soon or more and more bit of our common heritage will simply fall down.

RichyRich

Now there's a well thought out response...let's unburden the church of the buildings it created itself and burden the rest of the population with them instead. What a great idea! Apart form the fact that the government won't be able to do much with a church, because it was designed as a church and is pretty much only suitable for being used as a church....something that perhaps the church could do something better with?

No, I'm not religious. I wouldn't be adverse to getting married in a church. Hypocrite? Maybe. I think not. If I couldn't get married in a church I'd get married somewhere else, like a hotel or a roller coaster. I don't want a religious funeral. They can send the registrar to send me off. I can't think of why else I'd need a church, so why on earth would I want, as a taxpayer, to maintain them?

OK, they're nice buildings. Call me radical but I think that £1m or however much to keep a church in repair would be much better spent on other social aims - health, for example.

If people want to preserve churches, they can do it - they can raise funds themselves to do it. But if people aren't doing it, it kind of implies that the building and its services are obsolete so money would best be spent elsewhere.

Anyway I don't feel I'm helping the OP here, I have far better things to be doing with myself and I'm just wasting everyone's time, so I am not going to return to or comment further on this thread. Sober religious debates are nowhere near as much fun as drunken ones.

Rich

Graham_Devon

CB1979 wrote: »

well they say God repays in mysterious ways, looks like you've found out he charges in mysterious ways too! lol

but for the sake of under £200 is it really that big a deal?

Ok, let's put it another way. Go and give your local church £200. Out of your own pocket. Today, withdraw £200 cash and donate it.

Graham_Devon

Hermione54 wrote: »

why the hell should churches be funded by taxation?

Because they are historic buildings that belong to the whole community and cost a shed load of money to maintain. The church should hand them all over to state ownership and rent back the ones it needs. A shrinking handful of mainly pensioner churchgoers are being asked to shoulder a huge liability through pathetic coffee mornings and futile bazaars to provide a resource which 70% of the country expect to be there for the three or four occasions in their life times that they need it. I'm sorry Graham's parents have been stung for this. I don't understand what it is, I've never come across it before and it is clearly unfair. But society at large will have to take responsibility soon or more and more bit of our common heritage will simply fall down.

So it's quite ok to bankrupt someone to maintain a church?

Hermione54

So it's quite ok to bankrupt someone to maintain a church?

Of course it isn't. You obviously haven't read what I wrote: But society at large will have to take responsibility.
Like Rich I am not responding anymore to this thread because some people's prejudices are so firmly entrenched that they don't want them disturbed by facts. The Church of England receives no money at all from the state (apart from small Heritage grants) and has to pay VAT on maintaining 16,000 listed buildings. If you refuse to even see the problem, there's really no point in discussing it.

CB1979_2

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Ok, let's put it another way. Go and give your local church £200. Out of your own pocket. Today, withdraw £200 cash and donate it.

HAHAHAHAHAHA :rotfl:

what a joker, £200 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, you've already said it's tough they have to pay.

what you gonna do take it to the high court?

Graham_Devon

CB1979 wrote: »

HAHAHAHAHAHA :rotfl:

what a joker, £200 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, you've already said it's tough they have to pay.

what you gonna do take it to the high court?

What's the difference? Im a joker when I tell you to do it, but told It's not much money when my parents have to?

CB1979_2

yep i'm talking about no doubt they're making a nice tidy sum from their house sale, what's £200 out of £20000.

end of the day they have to pay it, no point whinging about it