Chancel Repair Liability

Posted 14/05/2012

Anyone who has recently bought a house or land is likely to have come across the risk of Chancel repair liability, which means that the landowner may be liable to fund repairs to the chancel of their local church. To date, the most common way of protecting yourself against this has been to purchase insurance.However, a change in regulation in 2004 now means that anyone buying for full value after October 2013 will not be liable for Chancel repair liability, unless the Church has registered its rights in that parish with the Land Registry, or there is mention of those rights in the title deeds.Chancel liabilities will need to be registered ahead of the October 2013 deadline, as once this has passed, a Church will lose the right to make a claim against any new owner who has purchased the land at full value, unless it is also expressly mentioned in the deeds. But, equally, this approach may not be favoured by some where there are already falling congregation numbers.This means that Parochial Church Councils and diocesan offices are likely to start applying to register Chancel repair liabilities. Some may write to landowners to notify them that they are in a parish in which a claim is likely to be brought against them by the Church.Our advice to farmers and landowners is to check with their solicitor if their land or house is in an area where there is a risk of a Chancel repair liability. This is done by a plan and fee in the region of ?18 for the basic search. If the land is in a risk area, then they may wish to take out insurance. However, if no risk is identified, no insurance will be needed.If a risk is identified, but the landowner does not envisage selling the land before October 2013, he/she may decide to ‘risk’ the Church registering rights in the meantime, albeit perhaps erroneously.Any new owner of the land who pays full market value after October 2013 will not be caught anyway unless the Church have pre registered, or it is contained in the deeds. But this does not cover someone who inherits the land or has the land given to them: that new owner will still be liable until there is a transfer of value.We have recently heard of cases where the Church Commissioners have applied to register mineral rights on a piece of land. The same principles and timeframes apply to some mineral rights as with the Chancel repair liability, but there is no central register for checking mineral rights, unlike chancel liabilities. Should the Church Commissioners contact you, it is advisable to check whether there is an identifiable liability within your deeds.