This is, quite frankly, a misleading article. There is a very great deal of misleading information about CRL on the web. Certainly do NOT look at the Wallbanks webpage; they imply that costs of repairs could be up to 3/4 of a million pounds: NOT TRUE! They were billed for around £94,000: a huge amount, certainly, and I can promise you that such a large expenditure in one go is very unusual. They chose to fight against something that is the law, and they lost; that is where the rest of that sum arises.

Don't believe all the horror stories, speak to a competant solicitor, or phone up the diocesan registrar for your area (all registrars are long standing solicitors, whose are responsible for church matters in their area).

I have just been informed by my solicitor that the house I am buying MAY be affected by this. As an atheist I have NO intention of buying an insurance policy or giving the Church of England any money for repairs, I will be taken to prison screaming and cursing them, after all the church of England is one of the richest institutions in the country !! Nearly every letter I recieve is asking for money,I reckon by the time the house purchase is finalised the cost will have gone up by at least another 10%.Its making me ill.

As a solicitor of more years than I care to mention, I hope I can add a bit to clear up a couple of points, and make a couple of suggestions.

The Chancel Check Search is not expensive at around £18, and is definitely worth having. As to mortgagees not requiring Chancel Liability Indemnity Insurance cover in place, more often than not they do require it. You'd frankly be lucky to get a mortgage from a Bank presently without it as a specific requirement in the Instructions to Solicitors/Conveyancers.

The somewhat infamous case that lead to the furore about the issue is Aston Cantlow -v- Wallbank and there are several good summaries available if you Google the case name. There is however much confusion about the issue, which is hardly surprising when you read the average Chancel Search result which contains the following:
"The above building is located within the historical boundary of a tithe district within a parish which continues to have a potential chancel repair liability based upon historical parish boundary data and the relevant Inland Revenue Indices held by the National Archive."

The Wallbank case was decided on very specific and somewhat unusual issues and the chances of individual liability in similar amounts applying in towns and cities must be remote. Having said that, it would probably be verging on if not actually professional negligence if a solicitor advised his client specifically not to consider insurance cover as completely unnecessary with such a search result as above, but there are two points on this:

1 Do your homework, and I suggest you do this yourself. If you want your solicitor to do it, fine, but don't expect him to do it for nothing. What do I mean ? Well, quite simply if you're buying, do some research into the existence of the local parish church. Does it still exist at all, has it been sold off and converted into a restaurant or similar, or has it perhaps even been torn down and completely rebuilt in recent years. I've seen examples of each in recent months, and all in cases where the above wording appeared on the Chancel Search report.

2 If insurance cover is to be taken up, make sure your solicitor, conveyancer or whoever is doing the conveyancing has shopped around for quotes. It is a one off payment, but the premiums available vary considerably. Whoever's acting for you should already know who is likely to be the cheapest. And do get cover to include mortgagees and successors in title, in perpetuity - you won't save much in going for the cheaper purchaser only policy but, as one correspondent pointed out, what does that do for the value of your house if liability is subsequently established ? And no, to answer another correspondent on the point, the solicitor makes nothing from the policy.

I'm scratching the surface a bit on this whole issue as there are many more interesting points, but I hope these help.

As a last thought, you may be lucky and get a clear search report. I have in front of me as I post this a Chancel Certificate stating as follows:
"We hereby certify that, based upon historical parish and tithe district boundaries, third party data, and the relevant documentation found at the National Archives, the property is within a tithe district or Parish that has no record of risk of chancel repair liability."

The client didn't want me to do the search, but the mortgage instructions were specific. £18 well spent I'd say, in that case at least.

Two things which presumably you would hope to avoid!!

Kuwaiti girls do not date archers.

I'm Julie Walsh, previously the Julie Mallion you are referring to.
Who are you Amanda?

DO i have to pay(insurance)per month?per year or just one time?

When we bought 4 years ago a CRL search was not carried out by our conveyancing people. Now we are selling and the issue has materialised via the buyers solicitors. Funny thing is that my wife and I are atheists!

We r waiting for conveyancing report as we speek...its all very confusing, IGNOR OR NOT IGNOR???? i KNOW the property is within a parish and was purchased a yr ago by a builder who has renovated it so,,,hopefully he has purchased the better of all insurances...if he has ignored it all WE COULD BE IN TROUBE AS LIABILITY IS KNOWN,,,i.ll let you all know how it pans out....

hello,

after configuring nvidia-xconfig as separate x, my second screen will just show the wallpaper and no toolbars. After running your script, on my #1 monitor the toolbars disapear and the #2nd monitor still shows only the background. This is in unity. I think we have to wait for the ubuntu update and I hope it coms fast... but thx anyway.

Robert

Glebe land is not the problem, as has been said such land is very difficult to trace accurately. In our Worcestershire parish the chancel repair liability(CRL) arises from an 18th century Enclosure Act. (One of 2300 such Acts of Parliament). The tithes ( 1/10th of crops)were extinguished by the Act in exchange for several hundred acres of common land. Part of the tithes had been used for the repair of the church chancel. The villagers no longer had to pay tithes but gave up part of their common land, the previous recipient of the tithes got land instead but he still had to repair the church chancel as part of the deal. Anyone owning any part of this previously common land takes on the CRL as well.
As the liability is classed as an "overriding interest" it did not have to be recorded on the Land Register. From October 2013, if it is not registered then after a subsequent change of ownership, the new owner is most probably no longer liable. (A minority view is that CRL only loses its pecking order with respect to other liabilities such as a mortgage). If there isn't a change of ownership then the existing owner remains liable after 2013. The PCC (parochial church council)can register after 2013 but it costs more.
PCC members are trustees so must look after the assets of their church, including the right to collect money to repair the chancel. The Legal Advisory Commission of the Church of England (LAC)has told them that if they do not seek out, register and impose CRL then the PCC members will suffer huge financial penalties themselves at the hands of the Charity Commissioners. The LAC has also said that they cannot refrain from doing so for reasons of a purely moral nature.
The central bodies of the Church has handed the problem down to each parish (5,200 have this CRL)without giving central advice or help to parishes. Some dioceses have help on their websites notably Rochester and Truro, both of which are excellent, however others such as Worcester give no help at all to their PCCs.
In addition to Enclosure Acts CRL can come through "rentcharges". Less easy to understand but explained on the above websites. CRL arising from enclosure is a joint and several liability this means that a PCC can pick any one landowner owning only a tiny part of the former common land that was exchanged and get the full payment for repair from him. He in turn has the right to recover from other similar landowners as best he can. (CRL arising through rentcharges is partly joint and several)
This joint and several aspect of CRL is most damaging when it comes to getting a new mortgage - how can a Building Society judge the value of a house that has an unknown size of CRL over it. Insurance is advised.
The Government cannot do away with CRL without paying compensation - Protocol 1 of the Human Rights Act. The Law Society in 2006 published their proposals for replacing CRL with a small addition to the Land Registry charge (which currently starts at £50)but the Church of Englnd has not taken this up yet. Perhaps some agitation is required.

Having been involved with a bit of research recently on this matter, I found out that Eastbourne and Bexhill on Sea are Boroughs, and are unparished. What is the liability in these areas, and who would collect any dues?

I would question this article. Every house in England is in a parish so dont be surprsed when you are told that your new house is in a parish. The Church Of Engl;and has divided the whole ocuntry into afdministrative distrcits which ti calls parishes, so if you are in a parish that need not indicate that you may have a probelm.

I think there has been one case in 50 years on this so i think its aninsyrance compnay scam

Hi All, maybe is has been mentioned here before, but please don't get ripped off with Chancel Insurance from Chancelsure, they are rip offs. I got mine for £15 and you dont even need a chancel check, saving you another £15 - unfortunately my solicitor insisted I had to get one through them. Then I found conveyancingdata.com. I do not work for them before anyone starts - they were very professional and informative on the phone, and when I eventually needed the policy, it was exactly £14.95!!! Save yourself £150+, get one from them, and by the way the underwriters are the same people - First Title.

....or even a "lay rector". (As I should have said in my earlier comment just posted!

There is an issue of principle here which should also be noted. Britain today is a secularist, multi-ethnic country and the notion of an "established" church is outdated. Leaving aside any financial consideration, a prospective buyer of a property that has turned up positive on a Chancel Check Search may not want, on principle, to become a "lay vicar"!