Chancel Repair Liability Update February 2012 - Diocese of Bristol

Chancel Repair Liability Update
February 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
What is Chancel Repair Liability
Chancel repair liability is the entitlement of a PCC to call upon certain organisations or
landowners to contribute towards the cost of repairs to the chancel of an affected church.
The topic has been in the news in recent years due to a high profile court case, and a
change in the law that takes effect in October 2013.
How does Chancel Repair Liability arise
Chancel repair liability can arise in a number of ways, most commonly through owning land
that was subject to the liability at the time of the Reformation. The liability can currently exist
although it may not be referred to in title deeds of affected land. Where affected land is sold
after October 2013, the liability will only continue where is it has previously been protected by
entering a Notice against the title of the land at the Land Registry.
Certain bodies such as the Church Commissioners, Deans and Chapter, or Oxbridge
Colleges may also be wholly or partially responsible for the repair of specific chancels. In
many of those instances, the legal position will not change after October 2013.
How does this affect PCCs
The Legal Advisory Commission of the General Synod's guidance to PCCs may be
summarised as follows:
1. A PCC must investigate whether it is entitled to the benefit of chancel repair liability, if
the answer is not already known. As PCC members are charity trustees, they have a
duty to preserve and protect the PCC's assets. Failure to do so may be a breach of
the trustees' obligations for which PCC members would be personally liable. The
Chancellor and the Registrar have reservations about this advice.
2. A PCC may consider whether or not to protect the liability against affected land at the
Land Registry. If a PCC concludes that it does not wish to pursue matters further, for
example because the PCC considers that the sums in question are uneconomic to
pursue, or because substantial pastoral damage would result, there are safeguards
that PCCs can put in place. The Diocesan Registry can offer useful advice in these
circumstances.
PCCs should contact the Diocesan Clerk, in the first instance, should they have any queries
or concerns as to the way forward.
Please be aware that PCCs requiring specific advice about chancel liabilities will be
responsible for the legal costs involved on a fee-paying basis.
Chancel Repair Liability in instances where liability rests with
the Church Commissioners or a Dean and Chapter
The Church Commissioners have recently set out their understanding of the chancel
liabilities for which they and Deans and Chapters are responsible, in whole, or in part.
Appended to this memorandum is a list of the relevant churches within the Diocese.
In these cases, the Church Commissioners have produced spreadsheets for each church
showing, in percentage terms, the proportion of the repairing liability falling to the Church
Commissioners and Deans and Chapters. Please refer to the links on the Diocesan web site

to the Information provided by the Church Commissioners, and its explanatory notes to
PCCs.
The Church Commissioners emphasise that their investigations are ongoing until mid-2013
and that the position set out in the spreadsheets may change if new information comes to
light. The Church Commissioners hope to eventually place the information on its web site
and PCCs are advised to regularly check the Pastoral section of the Church Commissioners'
web site (www.ccpastoral.org) for the latest developments.
The situation varies between churches and there are some instances where a proportion of
the liability arises through the Church Commissioners and Deans and Chapters owning land
within the relevant parish. This category of liability would need to be protected at the Land
Registry in order to bind the Church Commissioners and Deans and Chapters after October
2013. In some cases the Church Commissioners are voluntarily registering the liability
against its own land at the Land Registry.
Please note that the material received from the Church Commissioners does not relate to
other situations where a church has a lay rector. PCCs should consider those cases
separately.
Fragmented Liabilities
Where the chancel repair liability is fragmented, often small percentages of the liability fall to
individual landowners within a parish. If a PCC is concludes that the benefit of this type of
liability is so small that it would be either uneconomic or pastorally damaging to protect, we
are able to offer helpful advice to PCCs to ensure that they comply within their obligations
under charity law.
Christopher Jones
Solicitor - Ecclesiastical Property Department - Harris and Harris
on behalf of the Diocesan Registrar
February 2012
Please Note
This memorandum is intended to provide a brief summary of the latest developments and is
not a comprehensive statement of this complex area of law. The legal position will differ
between parishes and the Diocesan Registrar urges PCCs to contact the Diocesan Clerk, in
the first instance, should they have any queries or concerns as to the way forward.