What is a Chancel Search?
When buying a house, a chancel search is an important part of the conveyancing process in England and Wales.
It checks if your property has a legal obligation, dating back to the medieval period, to pay for repairs to the chancel (the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary) of your local parish church.
This is usually a requirement from your mortgage lender, but we always recommend ordering one, even for cash buyers, to protect against a potentially huge, hidden financial risk.
Chancel Repair Liability in England & Wales
Chancel repair liability is an old law that carries a real modern risk: the possibility of being legally forced to pay tens of thousands of pounds towards the repair of your local parish church.
A Chancel Search (also called a Chancel Check) is designed to discover if this ancient financial obligation applies to the property you are buying.
A medieval anomaly with a modern cost
Chancel repair liability is a medieval anomaly. It originated after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, transferring the responsibility for the upkeep of the church chancel to the lay owners of the former church land ("rectorial land").
This is not just a historical curiosity. The liability remains legally enforceable. The most prominent example is the Wallbank case of 2003, where a family lost an 18-year legal battle and faced a final bill, including legal costs, totalling over £350,000 for repairs to their local church.
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How does a Chancel Search work?
Your search company searches the historical records for the parish your property is located in. This research includes The National Archives and may also include Land Registry chancel repair records.
Chancel Repair Search: Report or Certificate?
The chancel repair search returned is headed up as either:
A Certificate
This confirms that the area of land falls within a parish that has no chancel repair liability.
A Report
This confirms that the area of land falls within a parish with a potential chancel repair liability.
This result indicates that you should consider taking out indemnity insurance.
My property is new. Can it still have Chancel Repair Liability?
Yes, it can. If your property is on land that was part of a liable ancient parish, the liability attaches to the land. Always check or insure, regardless of the property's age.
The 2013 deadline and overriding interests
The law regarding chancel repair liability changed on 13 October 2013 under the Land Registration Act 2002. This was meant to stop liability from surprising new homeowners.
Before this landmark date, chancel liability was an 'overriding interest'. This meant the charge applied to the land and was binding on buyers, even if it was not noted on the Land Registry title deeds.
What about in 2025?
Since the deadline, the liability must generally be registered with the Land Registry by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) to be binding on a new owner. However, liability still exists in specific scenarios:
- Properties Not Sold: If the property has not been sold for 'valuable consideration' (bought for money) since 2013 (e.g., inherited or gifted), the liability remains in place until it is sold next.
- Registration Risk: The PCC can register a Unilateral Notice protecting their claim at any point up until completion. Your solicitor must ensure that no notice has been registered between the exchange and completion dates.
If the PCC decides to enforce the liability, they do so through a civil claim in the County Court against the property owner, as highlighted by the Wallbank case.
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Protecting yourself with Chancel Repair Indemnity Insurance
If your chancel search returns a Report confirming potential liability, or if your property was transferred after October 2013 without a sale for value, the accepted, low-cost defence is to take out a Chancel Repair Indemnity Insurance policy.
What is Indemnity Insurance?
This is a one-off, non-renewable payment that protects you against the financial cost of a claim made by the Parochial Church Council (PCC). It is a specialist policy and is not covered by standard home insurance.
- It covers the cost of any required repairs you are legally forced to pay.
- It covers the legal fees involved in defending any claim brought by the PCC.
- The policy typically remains in place for the entire duration of your ownership and is often transferable to future owners.
The cost and when to buy
The premium for chancel indemnity insurance is a relatively small investment to protect against a huge, unquantifiable risk.
For a standard residential property where no liability has been registered, a policy offering £500,000 or more in cover is often available for a one-off payment of between £20 and £50.
Crucially, the policy must be in place before completion. If the church were to register a notice of liability against the property before you complete the purchase, the cost of insurance would rise significantly.
Important Insurance Warning
Do not contact the Parochial Church Council (PCC) or any church representative regarding chancel repair liability.
Indemnity insurance policies are a contract against an unknown, unquantified risk. If you make enquiries or alert the church to a potential claim, the policy may be invalidated.
Action required: What to do next
- 1
Order the Search
Your solicitor will order the Chancel Search. Our fee for this is £42 INC VAT. This is almost always paid by the buyer.
We include the initial Chancel Check search as part of our standard searches pack, which costs £325 INC VAT. This includes all the required property searches.
- 2
Review the Result
If the search returns a Certificate (no liability), no further action is required.
- 3
Insure the Risk
If the search returns a Report (potential liability), you must take out Chancel Repair Indemnity Insurance immediately.
- 4
Lender Requirement
Your mortgage lender will typically require either a Certificate or an Indemnity Policy before they release the funds for purchase.
What if I find out I am liable?
If you find out your property is liable, you do not immediately have to pay. The liability is only triggered when the Parochial Church Council (PCC) serves a formal demand. This demand is usually for a surveyor's report on the chancel's condition.
If you have a valid Chancel Repair Indemnity Insurance policy, you must notify your insurer immediately. They will manage the claim and legal defence on your behalf. Do not respond directly to the PCC demand.
- This search provides essential details about your property, including planning consents and road adoption agreements.
- It can also include any notices or restrictions (e.g., conservation area, smoke control area, tree preservation orders).
- It focuses specifically on the boundaries and the title of the land or property you're buying.
- Many properties in England and Wales, both old and new, may be subject to a chancel repair liability.
- This means you could be required to contribute to the repair costs of a local church, even if this isn't mentioned in your property deeds.
- This liability stems from historical land ownership and can affect properties in both urban and rural areas, stretching many miles.
- The potential cost can be substantial, running into thousands of pounds.
- This search confirms your property's connection to mains water and identifies the location of drains and sewers, both on and near the property (public).
- It indicates whether foul water and surface water drain from the property to a public sewer and the basis of charging for sewerage and water supply.
- This report checks for past and present industrial land use, which can indicate contamination.
- If the land is officially registered at your local authority as 'contaminated', you could be liable for clean-up costs, even if you weren't responsible.
- Clean-up costs often exceed the value of the property and/or land.
- Most environment reports also contain information about nearby industrial processes or installations such as landfill sites or waste management sites, as well as pollution incidents.
- Prediction of climate risks to the property and the surrounding area up to the 2080's.
- It looks at future soil subsidence, coastal erosion, extreme wind days, riverine flooding, surface water flooding, and coastal flooding.
- While not mandatory for mortgage lenders, we expect this to become mandatory in the coming years so include it in our search bundle.
Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.
Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.
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