church times

Land being used for residential, commercial or industrial use may be burdened with chancel repair liability. This is funding or contributing to the repair cost of the chancel of a medieval parish church.

This ancient liability is an issue now because the House of Lords reversed a Court of Appeal decision that the liability was incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), and the Land Registration Act 2002 says the liability can be enforced even though it is not apparent from the pre-2013 registers.

Buyers/tenants who buy/lease registered land after that date will be free of liability, if it is not noted on the registers.

A prospective buyer/tenant can find out if the land in question will be burdened with a chancel repair liability by requesting a low cost property search (via a legal adviser). This will indicate whether the property is within an ‘at risk’ parish but does not always specify whether the liability is actually attached to a particular property.

Action a potential buyer/tenant can take include:

• insuring against the liability for a defined period
• instruct an adviser to make a search – though the search result will not be guaranteed as the records are incomplete
• proceed and take the risk of future liability
• negotiate an amendment to the lease so that the landlord rather than the tenant is responsible for any liability

Potential buyers/tenants and landowners need to be aware that the value of the property subject to a chancel repair notice could be seriously affected.

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