Question 1

What is chancel repair liability?

Accepted Answer

An ancient and genuinely surprising legal obligation under which the owner of certain land can be required to contribute to repairing the **chancel** — the part of a parish church around the altar. It is one of the odder things a conveyancing search can turn up.

**Where it comes from.** It descends from the medieval arrangement under which the **rector** of a parish received tithes and, in return, was responsible for repairing the chancel while parishioners maintained the nave. When monastic lands were dissolved and rectorial property passed into lay hands, the **liability passed with the land**. Owners of former rectorial land — **lay rectors** — inherited the obligation, frequently without any knowledge of it.

**Why anyone knows about it.** The **Aston Cantlow** case, decided by the House of Lords in 2003, confirmed the liability was enforceable and did not breach human rights legislation. The couple concerned faced a bill running into six figures on an ordinary property. The case caused considerable alarm in the conveyancing profession and made chancel repair searches routine.

**The features that make it so unusual:**

**It is not proportionate to the land's value.** Liability can substantially exceed what the property is worth, and it is not capped.

**It can be joint and several**, so one owner may be pursued for the whole cost.

**It is not always visible** — historically it did not need to be registered to bind a purchaser.

**Proximity to a church is irrelevant.** Land can be liable while being nowhere near the church in question, and a neighbouring property may not be liable at all.

**What changed in 2013.** Under the Land Registration Act 2002, chancel repair liability ceased to be an **overriding interest** from **13 October 2013**. Parishes had to register it against affected titles to preserve it against a **buyer for valuable consideration**. Many did register; many did not.

**What this means now.** The risk has narrowed considerably, but it has not disappeared — an unregistered liability can still bind an existing owner, and a transfer that is not for value does not trigger protection.

**In practice:** a search costs very little, and **chancel repair indemnity insurance** is cheap and routine.

General information, not legal advice.

Question 2

What is indemnity insurance in a house purchase?

Accepted Answer

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Question 3

What are estate management charges on new-build estates?

Accepted Answer

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Question 4

What is joint and several liability in a tenancy?

Accepted Answer

Where tenants sign one tenancy agreement together, each is liable for the whole of the obligations — not for their share — which means one person's default becomes everyone's problem. What it means

Question 5

What is a flying freehold?

Accepted Answer

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Question 6

What is the cladding and building safety problem, and where does it stand?

Accepted Answer

A crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of flats, in which combustible external wall systems and other fire safety defects left buildings unsafe, unsellable and unmortgageable — and in which the

Question 7

What repairs is a landlord actually responsible for?

Accepted Answer

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