Chancel Repair Liability – Is It Still An Issue?

Chancel repair liability has the potential to leave property owners with a large bill to pay towards the upkeep of their local church. In October 2013, the law relating to chancel repair changed so that chancel repair liability stopped being an overriding interest - but what does this mean in practice?

WHAT IS CHANCEL REPAIR LIABILITY?

Chancel repair liability is a financial liability imposed on landowners. The purpose of the liability is to fund repairs to the chancel of a medieval church. As the liability first arose in 855 (and has been subject to numerous changes since that date), attaches to the land and can extend to property situated a long way from a church, it is extremely difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether a particular property is affected. Even if you have a new build and have no idea where the nearest church may be, there's a risk that you could be asked to pay up. It affects commercial properties in the same way as residential properties. And while it's unlikely - though not impossible - that a tenant will be directly liable, there's a good chance that liability will be passed on under the terms of the lease. Essentially, if you have an interest in property, you may be liable.

Liability is usual personal and several: what this means is that although yours may be just one of multiple properties subject to the liability, the church is still able to pursue you for the entirely of the bill - it is then up to you to claim a contribution from other landowners. The case that most people have heard of is the 2003 House of Lords decision in which the Wallbanks were found liable to pay a £100,000 bill for the repair of a local chancel. Following this decision, it became standard practice for purchasers to carry out chancel searches and, where necessary, to purchase insurance to cover the bill if a claim is ever made against them. If you acquired your property since this decision you may well have insurance which was put in place at the time of the purchase; however, if you acquired before this it is unlikely that you will.

Before 13 October 2013 there was no need for churches to protect the right to claim for chancel repairs: the very existence of the right was sufficient to enable them to make a claim. However, in anticipation of this changing, a number of churches that benefit from the right to claim for chancel repairs applied to the Land Registry to place a notice of this right onto affected registered titles...