Chancel Liability - 2013

Running_Horse

maninthestreet wrote: »

Why should the seller pay for the insurance, if it's the buyer who benefits from it?

Why should anyone pay for a policy that will never be claimed on? The whole thing is a rip-off, and the church should hang it's head in shame for not ending this phoney scam by simply saying it will never force anyone into paying to repair a church they do not use. What next? Perhaps we should pay for the upkeep of the local mosque or Sikh temple, or how about the pub? I am amazed there are no campaigns to end this.

dothemaths

If you want to throw your money away, at least do the lottery or something. Chancel insurance is a con, a scam and it makes millions for insurance companies every year. There was once a guy who bought a house in the grounds, (it was the only house in the grounds) of a dilapidated church - and got stung for repairs. Because of this, solicitors put the wind up their clients and people cough up hundreds of pounds each year for worthless insurance policies - they'll never need them. Ask your solicitor for the names of his clients who have made a claim on this policy - exactly, noone. Psychologically, of course, when you are paying hundreds of thousands for a house, another hundred or two doesn't make a difference - 'it goes through on the nod' Eh? How stupid!

PHTC wrote: »

Hi All, sorry for another Chancel Liability thread but I am currently in the process of buying a house and the searches have come back stating that the house may be affected, as a result our solicitor has recommended one of 3 insurances.

1. 25 Year insurance which is not portable between owners £58
2. 25 that is portable £120ish
3. 35 that is portable £160ish

The value of the property is £102,000 and they want to charge us £48 on top of that for setting up the policy for us. Am I being ripped off here?

Also if I did take the 25 non transferable insurance and come to sell the house in 7 years and the land is registered with the church by 2013 will that mean that the new owners wouldnt be able to get insurance whereas the 25 year portable they would (but only for a further 18 years?)

It just all seems ridiculous to me, the house is meant to be freehold...

Anyway any advice people? Just want to protect my investment should however unlikely the house turn out to be in an area affected.

Richard_Webster

OK the obvious thing for the government to have done following the Aston Cantlow v Wallbank case was simply abolish the right altogether.

They didn't so we are left with this unsatisfactory situation where it will probably just wither away over the years as in most cases there won't be any registrations and as properties ell after October 2013 the rights will go.

Trouble is that mortgage lenders seem to want solicitors to check the point - they don't make this 100% clear but my reading of the CML Handbook is that they assume we will check the point - if we don't and the lender suffers as a result they will be down on us for negligence. After all a lot of what solicitors do is checking whether small percentage risks are real or not.

Whether you take out a 25 year non-assignable, assignable, or perpetual policy is a matter of what you think the risks are and how long you are likely to own the property. If the buyer client is asked to pay £48 on top of the cost of the policy for arranging it he has more of a case for saying to the estate agents that he thinks the seller should pay and would they please require them to do this. However, often it is a time issue - save £100+ or argue for a week or two and not move.

As I have said before, there are some solicitors out there who routinely insure the liability for 25 years in virtually all residential cases - the policy is actually cheaper than the cost of the search - so we don't even do it! Perpetual cover doesn't cost a lot more. I have a block policy with an indemnity insurer, and so do a number of other firms - so it may be worth asking the question when obtaining estimates. At worst you save £7 or so on the cost of the search - and in an affected parish then the saving is around £50 or more if the solicitor charges for arranging the policy.

Someone will contact me on this - they always do - so I'll pre-empt them by saying that I can only arrange such insurances for my clients who are buying or for their buyers if my clients are selling.