News
19 February 2007
Chancel Repair - A Hellish Liability
Following a lengthy court case a couple from Warwickshire have been ordered to pay for the repairs to the chancel of Aston Cantlow parish church. The unexpected repair bill amounting to £189,969 plus VAT, with legal costs of £400,000, has been incurred as a result of chancel repair liability.
This ruling has implications for property owners who may be unaware of their liability and Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) who have a duty to maximise their assets.
What is Chancel Repair Liability?
Chancel repair liability requires owners of former rectorial land to meet the cost of repairing the church chancel. Such rectorial land was, and is, not necessarily near a church building and can be in both rural and urban areas.
Historically the owner of the property attached to the rectory had the duty of repairing the chancel in the parish church. Over a period of time the monasteries stepped in to the rectory, taking over that property and with it the chancel repair liability. After the dissolution of the monasteries their property, including the rectories, was appropriated to the Crown and then shared amongst a number of people.
Those who were given the land inherited with it the liability for chancel repairs and as the property was passed down through the generations, often split between a great many different people and institutions, the liability also passed and became fragmented. At the moment there is no central register of chancel liability.
Chancel repair liability is an overriding interest – this means that it does not have to be registered to take effect and a purchaser does not need knowledge of it in order to be bound by it.
Where land has been divided the owners of each piece of the land are jointly and severally liable. Thus where land has been developed into a residential housing estate, and each property sold off to separate people, each owner may be liable for the whole cost of the repairs, even if the amount payable is more than the value of each individual property.
In such an instance the PCC only has to register the liability against one property on the estate in order to claim for repairs. It would then be up to the owner of that property to confirm the liability has also been registered against the other properties on the estate if he wishes to ensure that he is not solely responsible for the full cost of repairs.
The liability was always thought to be limited to ensure the chancel is kept wind-proof and watertight. The Aston Cantlow judgement, however, appears to confirm that the repairs go beyond simply wind and watertight, and the full impact of this decision remains to be seen.
The future
Under the Land Registration Act 2002 a Transitional Order preserved the status of chancel repair liability for a period of ten years until 30 September 2013.
After this date, the liability will only bind new owners of registered land if it is protected by an entry in the land register made by the Parochial Church Council, or PCC.
It is therefore in the interests of the PCCs to register their chancel repair liabilities at the Land Registry and many will be endeavouring to do so over the coming years.
However, current homeowners will still be bound by the liability until such time as they sell their property – even where the interest has not been registered. It is only the successor in title who takes the property freed from liability.
What should I do?
When buying a new property, your solicitor should obtain a Chancel Check; a search, which considers whether or not the property is in an area which is potentially liable.
If this is the case, you may wish to consider, and your mortgage lender may insist on, taking out insurance to cover you, your mortgage lender, and any successors in title, for a period of 20 years.
Another option may be to compound the liability, by paying a lump sum now to avoid liability in the future. As the liability is joint and several, however, it is essential to involve all those who own land to which the liability attaches to ensure that one person is not paying for everyone else. Compounding the liability can be expensive, as the relevant PCC will want to obtain a sum that covers the current repairs and any possible future repairs.
This article is for the purposes of general awareness only. It does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
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