A chancel repair liability is the requirement for an owner of land to pay for the repair of the chancel (the part of the church containing the altar and the choir) of an Anglican parish church.

Where previously the local rector owned land in the parish, he was responsible for repairing the chancel of the church out of the money the land produced. Monasteries often acquired this land together with the responsibility for paying for the repair of the chancel. When Henry Vlll sold the monasteries' land, the liability to pay for the repair of the chancel remained with the land sold. That's the history out of the way!

How does this affect me?

If your property (residential or commercial) is within the vicinity of a church and subject to chancel repair liability then you could be required to pay significant amounts of money towards the repair of the chancel. Chancel repair liability is currently an "overriding interest", which means that even if it is not protected at the Land Registry it will nevertheless bind any person who acquires an interest in the land.

From midnight on 12 October 2013, chancel repair liability, and some of the more obscure classes of property rights, lose status as an overriding interest. Once the status of the right to claim chancel repair liability is lost, if the right is not protected by an entry in the register, a "purchaser" of the land will be able to take free from it.

The rights affected include franchises, manorial rights, and sporting rights as well as chancel repairs. These rights have generally not appeared on the registered title to properties unless they were specifically referred to in registered title documents.

Land Registry stats

The Land Registry estimates that about five thousand parishes in England and Wales could be affected by chancel repair liability. The idea of registering these ancient rights is to bring greater transparency to land ownership and make registered property titles as informative as possible. Up until now, concerned property owners and / or purchasers of land near to a church have taken out a form of insurance against the chancel repair liability being enforced.

No one wants to risk the same fate as Mr & Mrs Wallbank met in 2009 when they were forced to sell their house. They were " bankrupted" by the Church of England and the couple had to pay £230,000 towards the repair of the chancel of Aston Cantlow parish church under an historic chancel repair right.

Misconceptions

It should be made clear that even once the 12 October 2013 deadline has passed, the right for Parish Church Councils ("PCCs") to register chancel repair liability will not completely disappear, unless the property is transferred to third party for consideration.

If the church's interest has not been registered before this date and a property affected is subsequently transferred, then the owner takes free from it and the chancel repair liability is extinguished. However, PCCs will still be able to register chancel repair liability (at a cost) after 12 October 2013 if the property has not been transferred on to a third party for value.

Assume nothing

Since the unfavourable media interest surrounding the village of Broadway in Worcestershire last summer, where 30 households were sent letters explaining they could be liable to pay for repairs to St Eadburgha, it may be thought that churches have had their chance to register liability. However, it is not an assumption you should make without making investigations and taking legal advice.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.