Chancel check

dannyjebb

We have just instructed solicitors for our purchase and they are recommending we allow them to do a chancel liability search for £120!! I read an article mentioning chancelcheck does a free search to see if you could be liable. Has anyone any idea how you actual do this? I cannot see anything on the website?

Secondly, surely it makes more sense to just pay £100 or so liability insurance and not bother with a check if the check is going to cost you £120?

I would have thought on the internet there is a free way of finding out if a house falls inside the boundary of a church and so may be liable? It's a 1970s house on a housing estate less than a mile from the town centre,

Thanks Danny

melstar11

I emailed the vicar who confirmed he was not aware there was any such liability in what was a suburban area. My solicitor was happy with that.

dannyjebb

never even thought of that Suppose I could also leaflet around the other local houses. I am sure someone will have had that check. I also noticed our solicitor says if you are buying with a mortgage a chancel liability check is essential but I wasn't aware of this. I have never heard of a mortgage company requiring this either.

Thanks

bouicca21

You can do your own check for less than a fiver (unless you live near Kew in which case you can do it in person for free)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/chancel-repair-liabilities-england-wales/

AlexMac

I know of only one case where the Church has scrivened a homeowner out of the costs, not only of the repairs to the Chancel (whatever a chancel is) but also of their legal fees in defending against this insidious legal hangover ;
The 2003 case where the "Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley, Warwickshire" screwed over the "Wallbank" family in a uniquely famous Judgement which cost the poor sods their house.

Still, that's Christian Charity for you?

Since when, Lawyers and insurers have been coining it in by conning poor buyers out of fees of anything from £5-£150 for checking or insuring against this infinitesimal risk.

Put it another way; if your lawyer suggested you should insure against being killed by a lightening strike, on the grounds that, on average, over the past 50 years, 2 people p.a. have been killed becuase God Did Veritably Strike Them Down, you would probably tell ye scrivener to Go Forth and Multiply (GF&M, or F C U K O F F as the advertisers say)?

Lawyers; donchaluvvem?

dannyjebb

Hahahah exactly my thoughts,

Has anyone heard of a mortgage company requiring this search?

I have emailed the vicar of the closest church to ask. I will also ask the current owner if they had a search done.

Thanks

daivid

Do you know how much the indemnity would be for your property?

Mine was £15 and whilst for all of the above reasons I begrudged paying in, it seemed worth it to save unneeded hassle. I also wonder if you carry out the search and find your property is liable would that make you ineligible to indemnify or make insurance more costly?

Edit: No the mortgage company never asked about it, nor the broker. Just the solicitor :think:

Clutterfree

daivid wrote: »

Do you know how much the indemnity would be for your property?

Mine was £15 and whilst for all of the above reasons I begrudged paying in, it seemed worth it to save unneeded hassle. I also wonder if you carry out the search and find your property is liable would that make you ineligible to indemnify or make insurance more costly?

Think ours was around £30. We paid it just in case...

always_sunny

I checked with the fees I paid and it was £10 for Chancel check, admittedly I didn't even know what it was but seems a lot of work to dodge a tenner!

Richey_

Hi

I have just checked the statement from the solicitor from when we bought our house in 2013 and the chancel check cost was £20.

I thought for house purchases after a certain date towards the end of 2013 that if a chancel claim has not been made by that day, after a new house purchase they cannot claim from you anyway?

Richard_Webster

If the house you are buying changed hands after October 2013 and nothing is registered at the Land Registry against it then there can be no Chancel Liability. Your solicitors will see the Land Registry title when sent by the seller's solicitors.

If it changed hands before that then there is still a tiny risk that a registration could be made against the property. The age of the house and its location is generally irrelevant. The parish boundaries involved are those existing in the 1830s so the fact that a nearby church is modern is also nothing to do with anything.

However, because the risk is so small now the cost of indemnity insurance is quite low - around the £15 mark, if not less - so there is little point in carrying out detailed searches.