Chancel land accounts for up to 40% of all land in England and Wales! But what is it? Traced back to medieval times, the priest or rector of the parish would have a number of rights, including the ability to raise some taxes or income from the land of the parish.
At this time the cost of repairs to the church would be likely to be split between the rector and the parishioners with parishioners traditionally being responsible for the western end of the church and the rector being responsible for repairs to the chancel.
Of course since medieval times the areas of land in question will have been sold off or divided into many hundreds if not thousands of smaller parcels of land, and whilst the liability for the repairs has continued to exist, it has been a fairly rare occasion when such claims would be made.
However in 2003 provisions came into force which mean that in effect all chancel repair obligations will cease on the 13 October 2013 unless the chancel of any particular church has noted their interest in a particular property or land with the Land Registry before that date.
There was a famous case, quite recently, where the Church sought payment from the owners of the rectorial land to repair the chancel of the local mediaeval Church. The owners of the rectorial land (known as lay rectors) refused to pay and what was originally a £6,000 bill increased to £96,000 as the structure slowly disintegrated. Needless to say, the church won.
As part of the general conveyancing procedures one should always carry out a Chancel Check Search. The search, which generally costs less than £20, should reveal whether the property is likely to be within the historical boundary of a parish ,which continues to have potential chancel repair liability. If the search produces an entry with potential liability, insurance can be taken out at considerably less cost than the repairs!
The conveyancing team at Dutton Gregory can be contacted on 01962 844333
