Chancel repair liability
In concept, to be a lay rector is now entirely a burden for having taken rights over land such as impropriated glebe (the vast majority of glebe formerly held by a vicar or clerical rector has no liability) or abbey lands, and therefore being exempt from paying the tithes that other parts of that parish paid, as the agricultural produce or (after 1836) rentcharges the landowner used to receive no longer apply.
[6] Tithes have been terminated or commuted for centuries and en masse since the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, the remaining ones terminating under the Finance Act 1977, so it is sometimes possible[n 1] to discover definitively from any free source whether a given piece of land is still glebe in a present parish that must have had a rector but no longer does; maps and records held by the National Archives can be consulted.
In a minority of parishes a rector persists and his/her predecessors in that role never sold any land, as permitted after 1836, while granting the new owners the right to levy a rentcharge, automatically co-opting all successors to that land to potential liability for the chancel, or conducted a similar sale with a "merger of tithes", or saw part of an inclosure act swap glebe for common.
[5] In liable ecclesiastical parishes, only a minority have exercised their rights to apportion the cost of chancel repairs among the affected landowners, despite the common nature of checks and insurance.
[5] In the vast majority of ecclesiastical parishes (into which all of England and Wales is split) chancel repair liability is not applicable.
Andrew and Gail Wallbank received a demand for almost £100,000 to fund repairs of their parish's medieval church at Aston Cantlow in Warwickshire.
[8][9] The case is constitutionally significant for finding that a parochial parish council is not a "core public authority" under the Human Rights Act 1998.
[n 3] This means that chancel repair liability is no longer an "overriding interest" protected under the Land Registration Act 2002.
Others may have concluded that registering the right to claim chancel repair was likely to damage the church's mission or reputation in the local community, and have taken no action.
The Government acknowledges that the existence of a liability for chancel repair will, like any other legal obligation, affect the value of the property in question, but in many cases this effect can be mitigated by relatively inexpensive insurance.
