Chancel Repair Liability Search

A decision by the House of Lords has re-established the right to enforce Chancel Repair Liability whereby property owners whose homes are situated on former Rectorial land may be subject to a Common Law liability to repair the Chancel of a church where their property is within or abutting a Parish whose property or land carries Chancel Repair Liability. (CRL)

In effect the ruling by the House of Lords overturned an earlier appeal decision in the case of "Parochial Church Council of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley, Warwickshire v Wallbank and whereby property owners Andrew and Gail Wallbank were found liable to help in the upkeep of the St John the Baptist Church in Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire to the tune of £95,000

Around 5200 pre reformation Church of England & Wales have lay rectors of which the majority are private individuals and who may fall foul of the of Chancel Repair Liability unless they have taken positive steps to identify any potential liability at the time of the purchase or acquisition of their property by having their solicitor or conveyancer instruct search companies to undertake to carry out detailed research to identify any such liability.

The Government has acted recently however and a Transitional Provisions Order covering Chancel Repair Liability has been made and which takes effect when the Land Registration Act 2002 came into force on 13th October 2003. The Order preserves the status of Chancel Repair Liability within the Land Registration systems and for the next 10 years Chancel Repair Liability will remain an interest that binds successive owners of a property even though it may not be protected by an entry in a register kept by the Land Registry,

After the 10 year period, however, the liability will only bind new owners of registered land if it is protected by an entry in the register but not in the case of unregistered land where no such register entry is possible.

This arcane and somewhat anachronistic ancient liability may still even in the 21st Century return to haunt homeowners whose properties are built on former rectorial land.