1 have just received a chancelcheck report that informs me the property i am thinking of purchasing is in a parish with potential for chancel repair to all churches in that parish and as most proerty are so in theory a £10.000 repair spread around the parish would cost more to collect than received from each landowner, my biggest fear is in 2013 that if only one or two home are pick on for registration are they then liable for the full £10.000 is there any control and by who

we have part exchanged our house with a national builder. they have refused to indemnify us for the house we are buying from them, but are insisting that we indemnify them for the house they are buying from us. hardly fair now is it.

Today I may bake a pie.

I'm now facing this very problem as a potential buyer of a house with potential risk.

I'm considering doing a search of the archives to definitively get proof. However, as already mentioned, doing so may then force the land registry to be informed if indeed the property is within the chancel boundary.

Now here's where it gets a bit tricky. I could potentially ruin the vendors ability to ever sell the house just because I performed a search on it. They'll lose the ability to get insurance and reduce their chances of finding a buyer in future.

Surely there's something wrong with that.

what a fantastic article thanks for the informative read, we are selling our house and buying a new property and this issue has come up and i have refused on several occasions so far but they wont proceed until i cough up or sign a waiver of indemnity I have done extensive reasearch on this matter and love your article it is a scam but a legal scam still I am not paying it and I certainly will be going fridge shopping

We are going to have a look at the local church and see if it needs repairing before making the decision to go fridge shopping !
Ron 21st April 2011 at 17:41

Excellent article! I'm moving within Brighton at the moment, into the parish of a certain medieval church. Said church is undertaking ongoing extensive restoration work, including to its chancel. Given that this work is already well underway, funded so far by grants and that I am moving into a block of 20 flats, so any liability would be split at least 20 ways, I'm inclined to go fridge shopping too.

Who should pay for the insurance when a CRL arises ? Seller or buyer ?

Can you make PythonMagick work, while you're at it?

We're going to Thailand!!

The "law change" is in fact the Land Registration Act 2003 which covers a wide range of things but which is attempting to make sure that the Land Registry records are like a log book for your house i.e. if it is not mentioned in the log book you do not need to worry. However, the problem with ancient legal rights is they are just that, they are legal. That is not to say they are fair. However, other such legal rights which may not show on the Land Registry are say if your family home which has passed down the generations has always used the next door farm track to drive to the house. Everyone has always been happy with that and you may now have a legal right. It may not be registered at the Land Registry but it is still legal. Now consider if the farmer could, without notifying you, stop you using it. That would seem unfair. So all the Act is doing is saying we don't want these ancient chancel rights hanging over people when the church has not bothered about them for years so we will give them 10 years to do something about it and after that they stand to lose it. A fair way, to both sides, to deal with an ancient unfairness. Personally I agree that Christian Churches ought to question how Christian it is to enforce their "legal" rights to the detriment of other peoples lives.

Now as a Licensed Conveyancer who has been doing Residential Property Law for 25 years I have to defend the conveyancers. Since this issue arose after the original case everyone has jumped on the bandwaggon to make money out of this. The companies providing Continuing Professional Development Courses which are compulsory for all qualified lawyers have used the opportunity to terrify us sufficiently about the issue that we flock in droves to take their particular course to ensure we are not going to get caught out with insufficient knowledge; the insurance companies bombard us with horror stories of what happened to lawyers who failed to push their insurances. Conveyancers do not get commission for undertaking searches or using insurance. Bearing in mind that at the moment Lenders in particular are trying to blame every negative equity on the conveyancer and not on their own bad lending practices conveyancers are feeling very nervous about where the next Professional Negligence claim could come from and some make the decision "get everyone to insure as much as possible regardless of the cost to the client so they don't blame me when it all goes wrong". I personally believe in informing the client of the risk, assisting them to assess the risk and then supporting them in whatever decision they make. I think I have only ever once used a policy!

The 'law change' (actually a new regulation) in 2003 is not as far reaching as many appear to think.

If your land carries repair liability you as the owner will have to pay if asked until you sell the land whether or not the church registers an interest before Oct 2013. The new regulation did not extinquish the liability for present owners.

If you sell the land the new owner will ony be liable if interest was registered before Oct 2013

The Church does not want to lose this funding so they encourage insurance which means they can get their money with little offence.

The governmaent encourages insurance because it does not want to contribute via English Heritage

The insurers .....

This has been brought about by a large test case followed by a cynical regulation 'to make matters clearer' but not for ten years during which time the threat of registration forces the fearful to insure.

Gordon Brown was chancellor in 2003.

I, for one, like "that sort of thing".

As a serving priest in the Church of England, I must agree with everything that has been said. I am ASHAMED and APPALLED to be a member of a Church which even considers enforcing this piece of medieval robbery, let alone enforces it. I say, it is a WICKED thing altogether and threatens to alienate the people of England whom we are trying t serve. We couldn't think up a better way of upsetting people or ruining thier lives.

The churches that ask for money and force people pay out for chancel should be shame of themself.Prests rectors and archbishope go and find yourself job,we on 2011 and medival time is over when you and all of your ancestors threaten humans that the devils would take over them if not be devote to the church,nowdays its only lots of f..b..s..Our governement should face this joke,remanding at the uk citizen we are in EU.Since i have read a lot of it,I M NOT GOING TO ANY ANGLICAN CHURCH EVER AGAIN ,until this unfun game get sorted.
Regards
Kerry

I have commented. You are nice xxxx

Please please please dont pull out of buying a house over this. Its all such a con. Insurance companies are loving it. Yes nearly all properties will fall under this supposed risk but how many people do you know that have had to pay this? The whole thing only exists today because of that unfortunate couple who lived on Glebe farm. When i bought my last house i paid the insurance... about £50. This time (about to exchange on new house) they can poke it up their...****. Same as insuring your mobile phone... ITS A WASTE OF TIME!Im not giving these vultures a penny. If i get charged then ill burn the church down as my homw will already be worthless so what the hell!

Ps. im no lawyer so make your own call but like the writer... im going Fridge shopping... or failing that, matches and some lighter fluid.