Chancel repair liability has been a headache for many conveyancers for a number of years, particularly since the case of Aston Cantlow (PCC) v Wallbank in 2003.

Up until 13th October 2013 we included all of our purchaser clients on our block “No chancel search” indemnity policy at an average premium of £14 to provide cover for the next 25 years in the very unlikely event that a demand was made on the owner of a property to contribute towards the chancel of the local medieval founded parish church. This was necessary because prior to 13th October 2013 chancel repair liability was classed as an interest that overrides, ie an interest affecting property which did not have to be registered against the title of a property to be legally binding. That all changed at midnight on 13th October 2013 and whilst it is still possible after that date for chancel repair liability to be registered against titles to properties, it can only be registered prior to a property changing hands for value. Once a change of ownership for value has been registered at the land registry after 14th October 2013 that property is safe from being affected by any chancel repair liability.

What are we doing to protect our clients then until title has been registered in their name? Well, provided the title to the property is already registered, we are carrying out our land registry OS1 search immediately prior to exchange of Contracts. Provided the search result is clear the purchaser for value is protected against the future registration of any chancel repair liability provided that title in their name is registered before the expiry of the priority period on the OS1R search result. The search once carried out gives 6 weeks from the date of the search to register title and provided the application for registration is submitted in that 6 week period there is no risk to the purchaser for value of registration of any chancel repair liability.

If however the title to the property is currently not registered at the land registry there is no pre-completion search we can carry out to protect the purchaser for value so in those situations we are still including our clients on the block “No chancel search” indemnity policy operated by this firm for the small premium of £14. We are however finding that many firms of lawyers are still carrying out chancel searches and if they show a potential liability they are asking for our seller clients to pay for an indemnity insurance policy. We are advising our seller clients not to pay for such indemnity insurance when the title to the property they are selling is a registered title as in our view this is totally unnecessary and so unfortunately those firm’s buyer clients are probably being advised by their own lawyers to pay for an indemnity policy that really is not necessary and will not provide any cover to them following registration of title anyway as they will no longer be at risk of chancel repair liability being registered against the title to the property.