Help - rectorial tithe on a property??

[sarjo]

I should have exchanged contracts on a house purchase today, but last minute my solicitor said there was a problem.

 

There is the mention of a RECTORIAL TITHE in the title deeds, which may result in a claim in the future.

 

I have read that you can get a chancel liability insurance policy for about £65 if the land registry is not aware of the problem. I have also read that a property could be unsellable in the future if this is officially known?

 

I am at a loss as I am completely in the dark, and my solicitor was disturbingly not familiar with this problem, and was probably doing the same as I have been - google searching it!!!

 

Anyone with knowledge of this or advise please??

[keener]

Having just bought a house I know a little about this as my solicitor flagged it up. Apparently this is a really old law that says if a church needs repairing it can ask all the houses in the parish to chip in. Obviously if there's loads of houses it wouldn't work out very much each but my solicitor told me there was a case fairly recently (in the last 11 years since I last bought a house and wasn't told about it then!) where there was 1 house in the 'parish' (I think it was a country estate or something) and it cost them loads of money and they went bankrupt.

 

Since then solicitors have been flagging it up as a potential problem should the church claim. However, my solicitor went to a training course are there were loads of church lawyers there too so she asked them about it and, apparently, they said "off the record it's not economical for us to pursue this sort of claim from every house".

 

Obviously, as you've been told, you can get insurance to cover you against potential claims from the church but we decided not to bother as it's just another cost to house moving and the chance of being stung were small and there's lots of houses in my parish so the cost would be split pretty small should it ever be pursued.

 

I'm not sure about the property not being saleable in the future - that sounds a bit iffy to me - and you must get as much info as you can before you make your own mind up (I'm not a lawyer!) but from my experience I'm not bothered about it.

[Charlotte]

Firstly, I can't believe that it's only just been flagged up at the point of exchange if your solicitors have had the title deeds since the outset (they would need a copy to do searches etc).

 

So your solicitors doesn't have any idea what you should do? If there is mention of a tithe in your title deeds it's a little different to just a potential liability on a chancel check search (which most solicitors do as standard these days).

 

Thankfully, as of 2013 all chancel repair liability will have to be recorded on the register for it to have an effect on a particular property, thus eliminating the need for searches and indemnity insurance. Of course that doesn't help you at the moment!

 

I would suggest that you speak again to your solicitors. If he/she doesn't know what to do, ask that someone else in the firm look at the file - after all you are paying them to provide you with a service and someone should have some knowledge, worst case, they will have books to help them.

 

Unfortunately I can't do much more than speculate what the possible issues might be without seeing the office copy entries.