Chancel Repair Liability

Holy Trinity Church at Lane End was erected some years after the first of the Church Building Acts was passed in 1818 and therefore has no Lay Rector responsible for maintaining the Chancel of the church in "wind and weathertight condition". The Parochial Church Council is responsible for the maintenance of the Chancel as well as all other parts of the church building.

However one of our Churchwardens, Bryan Edgley, in his capacity as a farmer, was subjected many years ago to a claim for repair of the roof of the Chancel of a pre-Reformation church in the neighbouring county of Oxfordshire on the grounds that some of his fields carried that ancient liability. This case led to a debate at General Synod in February 1981 on the subject of Chancel Repair Liability, and that debate was followed by the publication in 1985 of the Law Commission Paper No. 152 entitled ‘Property Law, Liability for Chancel Repairs’. More recently special provisions for the registration of Chancel Repair Liability have been incorporated within the Land Registration Act 2002.

The PCC of Holy Trinity, Lane End, considers this subject to be of national importance, and therefore the full text of Bryan’s "Chancel Repair Liability, a Churchwarden’s Guide to Best Practice for Registration at HM Land Registry"  may be downloaded by others concerned with chancel repair liability.