Chancery Repair Liability

[~ vortex ~]

Has anyone else heard of this unjust ancient law that requires property owners liable to pay for the repairs of local churches? This could potentially leave your house or property worthless and unsaleable if enforced by the Church Of England regardless what religion you follow and could effect tens of thousands of properties in England and Wales. Not a very christian act in my book should the C of E choose to enforce it. http://chancelrepair.org/index.html

please sign the online petition so that this unjust and unfair law gets resigned to the history books where it belongs

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Chancel-Repair/

[buildersmate]

You exaggerate. It is true that it exists, but on a very small number of old country properties that have a commitment / requirement to contribute in the way you describe. Tens of thousands is a ridiculous overstatement, and any lawyer worth his salt should have found the issue during searches on the legal title.
Your way of describing this appears designed to wind the average man in the street that the local vicar will be around with a collection box.

[oxfordrocks]

Surely you had a solicitor to look through the deeds at time of purchase?

You must of been aware this was a possibility.
If not, talk to the profession's ombudsman.

surely this can only apply to land owned by th C of E.

[~ vortex ~]

If your solicitor found such a clause on a property that you was thinking of buying, would you still go ahead with the purchase?

[Bev2007]

I have a Chancery repair Liability on my property and its a complete non-issue (and no my land is not owned by the C of E). I am also selling my house now and its a non-issue for my buyer too.

The church has never exercised its right to extract the levy and if you are concerned you can buy an insurance policy for about �60 which in the grand scheme of house buying is a pittance.

This is one of those quirky things that make England what it is, and if I didnt have anything better to do I'd set up a petition against your petition ;-)

[~Karen~]

The Church has been given until 30th of September 2013 to regsiter an interest in any properties that could be affected.

Chancel Repair Liability isn't always noted in the deeds, many Churches don't even know which properties are affected. It would require them going through past records to see who previously paid the tithe.

Since there is a deadline now, potentially many homewoners could received letters informing them that an interest has been registered by the church.

[sireb]

It is not just a small number of country properties affected by this tax. It would appear to cover the majority of the city of Cambridge for example. While the church may not be knocking on the door of every small terrace, the insurance industry are certainly happy to take up the collection on their part, trying to force buyers into demanding the insurance against what is an absolutely minimal risk (as far as I know, the case which bought this insurance industry into being a few years ago was a church going after a large old manor, not a small freehold owner-occupier, but the latter the prey of the insurance brokers, with the support of lawyers). Since when did lawyer become insurance industry marketing tools.
http://yourfreedom.hm...chancellery-insurance