Chancel Repair Liability dates back to medieval times, when Churches (or more specifically their Chancel’s) were maintained by wealthy land owners. Since medieval times what used to be large estates of land have now been broken down in to many thousands of privately owned properties, yet the potential for Chancel Repair Liabilities has been passed down to successive owners of the land or buildings.
Thankfully however, these archaic laws are now changing.
Since October 2013, the Church has had to express a specific interest in a property/land by noting their interest with the Land Registry, otherwise there was the potential for the Church to lose its ability to claim meaning that the property/land would no longer be at risk. (On the flip side of this it did of course mean that there was, and in fact still is, an increased risk of Churches investigating potential liabilities for properties within their parishes).
Churches therefore advised their Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) to register as many liable properties as they could prior to October 2013, and are still instructing them to seek to register this interest. However, as the date has now passed this does not mean that an interest cannot still be registered.
Currently 25 out of 43 Diocese in England and Wales are known to be investigating which properties are liable and actively registering interests.
Therefore as a rule of thumb we at Martyn Prowel Solicitors put our clients first and arrange for the necessary protection to be put in place on every purchase property we deal with, as we consider that an indemnity policy is the safest way to protect our clients against any potential claims of the Church both now and in the future.