Gemma Stephenson and Georgie Bright, in our Commercial Property team, explain what a chancel repair search involves.
If you have ever been involved in a property transaction you may recall your solicitor asking whether you would like a chancel repair liability search conducted on the area in which the property is located.
What is chancel repair liability?
A church chancel is the space surrounding the alter including the choir and sanctuary. Chancel repair liability originated around 1150 years ago when the church decided it required a form of taxation to maintain and keep the church in good repair. This taxation system has developed over the years into chancel repair liability, a tax which roughly 5,200 pre-reformation churches in England still benefit from today. Chancel repair liability allows the Parochial Church Council to ask the owners of property or land which falls within the former church land to contribute money towards the repair or maintenance of the church chancel, and the owners must oblige.
The Land Registration Act 2002 (“the Act”) removed chancel repair liability as an overriding interest but did not remove it entirely. Instead, the Act gave the church or the Parochial Church Council until 13th October 2013 to register chancel repair as an overriding interest, meaning if property or land was bought on or after this date and no interest was registered then it is bought free of chancel repair liability. However, despite the deadline to register the chancel repair overriding interest, the Land Registry are still accepting applications for registration of these overriding interests due to the fact the courts are yet to make a ruling on the subject of chancel repair.
What is a chancel repair search?
As the Land Registry are still accepting applications relating to chancel repair, it is questionable whether the title alone can be relied up. A chancel repair search goes through all parish archives (as well as the Land Registry records) to decipher whether the property is situated in an area with chancel repair liability.
Why would I need one?
You may believe that if a church is not visible or in a close proximity to your house or land then there is no risk of chancel repair liability in your area, however this is not the case as church land is not always situated in close proximity to a church. In 2009 a couple in Warwickshire were required to pay a staggering £230,000 to repair the chancel of Aston Cantlow’s church as their property was in an area of chancel repair liability. Although the chances of being caught out by chancel repair liability are slim, they are far from zero and repair costs for church chancels can be substantial.
When buying or leasing a property, it is always worth instructing an expert who can do the requisite searches and give informed advice. The cost of a chancel repair search tends to be fairly low, whereas the potential liability that could be avoided through insurance where there is a risk may be very high.
For further information or legal advice, please contact law@blandy.co.uk or call 0118 951 6800.
This article is intended for the use of clients and other interested parties. The information contained in it is believed to be correct at the date of publication, but it is necessarily of a brief and general nature and should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific professional advice.
