What are Chancel repairs? 

These are liabilities that attach to some properties and can require the owners to contribute towards the costs of repairing the chancel of a church.  Previously these liabilities were categorised as ‘overriding interests’ and as such a purchaser of property would be stuck with them whether or not they were aware of their existence.  With the potential costs contributions running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds in some cases, it is important to know whether your property is subject to chancel repair liabilities (CRLs).  Liability can be shared between many different properties, but the church has no duty to make a claim of all properties.  It is enough to claim against one and leave it to that property owner to find other owners with similar liabilities and then try to recover some of the costs.  Some parishes had apportionments of costs fixed against all properties in their area in 1836, but to find the exact figures would require a search at the Public Records Office.  Often, given the size of the parish in 1836, the church in question can be some distance away from the property and very difficult to identify. 

Following a change in the law in 2013, CRLs lost their status as overriding interests and, if the relevant church wanted to retain its power to collect contributions from property owners, it had to register a notice on each property’s title at the Land Registry.  Failure to do this meant that the next purchaser to acquire the property for ‘valuable consideration’ after 2013, ie paying a market value, and not receiving it as a gift, would be freed of any continuing obligation to contribute to the CRL.  This evolution of the law was intended to make this ancient system fairer and more transparent.  However, the Land Registry has said it will continue to register notices of CRL’s on property titles on the basis that it has no duty to check that there is a legal basis for an application for such a notice.  Should this happen, a property owner can challenge the validity of the registration of a CRL and have it removed from the property register, but this inevitably takes time and incurs costs.  Depending on when a CRL notice comes to the property owner’s attention, it could have negative effects on a transaction.  In addition, there is to date no caselaw or guidance on the validity of a CRL notice registered apparently incorrectly, so no guarantee that such a notice would not be considered binding.  

So what can I do?

It is possible to carry out an inexpensive search of your property address to find out whether it lies within a CRL parish.  If you discover that you are within the boundaries of a parish, you can obtain indemnity insurance to guard against claims for repair contributions.   Costs depend on the nature of the property, and its size.  Working out the level of indemnity would need expert advice.