Chancel Repair Liability

10th Feb 2011

With just over two years remaining, the clock is ticking for churches to register their chancel repair liability (CRL) at the Land Registry.

After October 13, 2013, a church can only enforce its right to make land owners pay for the upkeep of the chancel if the church has registered its interest at the Land Registry.

The liability arises from the ownership of land or a right to tithes formerly belonging to the rector.

At the Reformation the land and the tithe rights were distributed to lay persons (lay rectors) by King Henry VIII.

Whilst only pre-Reformation churches can benefit, it is wrongly assumed by many that only property close to a church can be adversely affected. It is common for owners of property ten miles or more to be liable because parishes were originally much larger.

The extent of liability depends upon whether it was based on a right to tithes or land that was formerly owned by the rector.

The financial consequences are much more significant for land that was owned by the rector because the owner can be sued for the full cost of repairing the chancel unlike liability based on tithes where the costs are apportioned among the various owners.

Churches are under a legal obligation to investigate and register CRL and are now doing so.

Insurers of churches are also insisting on this. Whilst the insurance market (estimated to be worth £20m annually) is based on the risk to land owners, insurance may not always be necessary if liability cannot be established.

Land owners may wish to consider taking legal advice particularly as so many of the chancel repair searches undertaken are inconclusive.

Although there are very good records relating to tithe for every chancel in the country where liability exists, it is more difficult to establish land which was formerly owned by the rector. This means that it is easier to establish CRL for a church where tithe records exist.

Whilst property names referring to glebe, parsonage vicarage or rectory may raise alarm bells, these cannot be relied upon as it is rare to find a reference to liability in the title deeds.

* Philip Wills is a solicitor in the commercial litigation department of BHP Law and has acted as consultant in advising both churches and land owners on the subject. He can be contacted on 0191-384 0840.