Chancel Repair Liability

[Diane0011]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice.
I planning on buying a house and have done a chancel search, the search has come back and its very vague. It says "The above address is located within the historical boundary of a tithe district
within a parish which continues to have a potential chancel repair liability".
Does anyone have any experiance with Chancel repair liability? should I be worried about this? I read somewhere that if the property is sold after 2013 without chancel repair being registered on its title it will be free from the laibility?
I'm sorry for all the questions but my solicitor doesn't really know much about this topic, this is my first time buying house and i'm nervous about making a mistake.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

I expect you'll be advised to take out an indemnity policy to cover this situation.

Our last house had the same liability and we had a policy in place to cover us. It was £124 and purchased by the previous home owners- the policy they took out was transferable to any future owners, so do check that the current owners don't already have a transferable policy in place.

It's worrying that your solicitor doesn't seem to have any knowledge on this though, it's quite basic stuff for a conveyancer i'd have thought.

When we bought our house five years ago, I asked about this as we overlook a church. We paid a one-off £60 for £2,000,000 indemnity for the period we occupy the house. Though this church isn't old, the parish it was carved from has a mediaeval church and that was the liability we were anxious to avoid.

It’s very common in older village properties in the uk, just get insurance, it isn’t expensive and can usually be passed on to new owners during a sale process, we had insurance at our last house which was opposite a church, it was signed over to the new owners when we sold.

It's worrying that your solicitor doesn't seem to have any knowledge on this though, it's quite basic stuff for a conveyancer i'd have thought.
Agreed, although at least the solicitor knew enough to order the search. Perhaps they have never bothered looking into precise details.
Get indemnity insurance, OP. It's a standard thing. Your solicitor will be able to get it quite cheaply as they will have a deal their broker. It will be more cost-effective than getting a solicitor to look into the matter!

We decided to take out the insurance as it was less than £150 (one off payment) and we were too ground down with the process to argue. Probably was a waste of money tbh bit it’s no big deal

I didn't bother with the insurance. We shall see whether I live to regret it!

If you can get insurance then do so. If you can't get insurance then I wouldn't buy the property. Our local church needed significant repairs and couldn't get any help from the Church of England towards costs because there was a Chancel Liability mechanism in place. The local church had no option other than to all on the affected properties for the money because they have a duty to maintain/repair a historical building and had no other way to access significant funds while the Chancel Liability mechanism was in place.

It was a nightmare all round. The local church is of course run by the PCC, which is local people. So we had local people calling on their neighbours/friends of many years for significant amounts of money (that not all the affected properties had easy access to). Drove wedges between neighbours, drove several families from the village church and is now all shrouded in secrecy because the people who paid don't want others in the village knowing what they paid etc.

Insurance or don't buy the house.

check that the chirch actually falls under the chancel repair scope.

we bought a property in the same street as a historic church building, but as it was the 'wrong' demonation it didn't fall under the rule.

We paid a ridiculously small amount for our chancel indemnity policy, £1 I think four years ago! But weirdly we weren't allowed to tell anyone else on our estate about it.

Hi OP,
That's the standard wording on a search result where there is potential chancel repair liability. The 2013 rules were supposed to have drawn a line under chancel repair but due caselaw which is probably a bit too unexciting even for this, it's still a potential issue.
As others have said, the cover is a one-off premium and definitely worth doing. That said, your solicitor (who sounds useless) should be asking whether the seller has an existing policy.

Thanks everyone I will definately take out insurance

@GU24Mum

Hi OP, That's the standard wording on a search result where there is potential chancel repair liability. The 2013 rules were supposed to have drawn a line under chancel repair but due caselaw which is probably a bit too unexciting even for this, it's still a potential issue. As others have said, the cover is a one-off premium and definitely worth doing. That said, your solicitor (who sounds useless) should be asking whether the seller has an existing policy.

When you say it's the standard wording do you mean it's a generic default result for the entire town? Is it possible this search result might not mean the house has any liability? I've had a look at the title register of the house and there is no mention of chancel liability (mind you the house was last sold in the 90's). Am I right in thinking that if I buy the house and nothing gets inserted into the title register that means no future chancel liability can get claimed against me? I will definately take out insurance just to be safe as things like this make me anxious.

Hi OP,

It's the generic wording when there is an issue (ie as opposed to it being clear
with no potential liability). It will affect other properties than just yours (unless it's a mansion in acres of land!) but you shouldn't really speak to neighbours etc about it.

The result is a desktop search of the postcode plotted against the old parishes. It used to be something people might have taken a view on but insurance is pretty cheap (in the context of the whole deal) and honestly worth it plus your mortgage lender is likely to require it in the small print of the conditions your solicitor will work through.