“Medieval Madness”: the Law Commission’s proposed reforms to the registration of chancel repair liabilities 22 July 2025
Last week, the Law Commission published a 185-page consultation paper on the law governing the registration of chancel repair liabilities, and the effects of registration.
A chancel repair liability (“CRL”) is an obligation to keep the chancel of a parish church (the eastern end of the church, containing the altar) in good repair. This liability dates back to the 16th century and Henry VIII.
The Problem
Property owners can be liable for repair of their local church if built before 1536, even if this was not apparent from the title deeds when they purchased the property. The liability attaches to the land, and passes on the sale of the property.
The Law Commission recommended the phased abolition of CRL as long ago as 1985. Back then, it said “this relic of the past” is “no longer acceptable”.
The impact of a CRL on a landowner can be substantial. The extent of the risk was highlighted in the 1990s by the litigation between Mr and Mrs Adrian Wallbank and the parochial church council of Aston Cantlow. Mr and Mrs Wallbank had the good fortune to inherit some agricultural land, but the misfortune that it came with a £230,000 chancel repair bill. An outcome which Mr Wallbank described as “medieval madness”, and which resulted in them losing their home.
The Law Commission’s proposals to abolish CRL were never implemented, but the rules relating to the registration of CRLs have been subject to various sets of reforms, most recently in 2013. Prior to that date, it was difficult to assess whether a property was subject to a CRL, as a CRL was potentially an overriding interest which did not need to be registered.
It was intended that the reforms implemented on 13 October 2013, through changes to the Land Registration Act 2002, would have the effect that a CRL would cease to be an overriding interest, and instead need to be registered to be binding. This was intended to result in greater transparency for purchasers.
Since that time, doubts have been raised about whether a CRL is in fact caught by the key provisions of the Land Registration Act 2002 at all (which turns on whether a CRL is “an interest affecting an estate”); and therefore whether the 2013 reforms had the intended effect.
The Law Commission notes, in the current consultation paper, that the doubts in the marketplace are sufficiently serious to add at least £40 to the typical cost of a house purchase. Purchasers are routinely advised to carry out a search to check whether the property is subject to CRL and often to pay a one-off premium for insurance against potential CRL risks.
The Project
The Law Commission now proposes that the Land Registration Act 2002 should again be amended, retrospectively, to clarify that a CRL is “an interest affecting an estate” and that it therefore only affects property buyers if it is registered against the property title. The Law Commission has published a draft of a new clause that would achieve this purpose.
The Law Commission is also consulting on whether the law relating to unregistered land (which still makes up 11% of the land area of England and Wales) should also be amended, to require a CRL to be registered as a land charge if it is to bind purchasers. This would protect purchasers from the new registration of CRLs between the date of purchase and first registration. However, as the Law Commission points out, it is not clear how this could be achieved effectively, and, in particular, how parochial church councils would register land charges against unknown persons.
The Law Commission emphasises that the current project is limited to the issues relating to the registration of CRLs, rather than their very nature. So, for example, there is no consultation on abolishing CRLs altogether; imposing a cap on what can be claimed (which could in theory be many multiples of the value of the property); or whether the liability should remain a several liability (in which any individual landowner can be pursued for the entire costs).
Homeowners and conveyancers are likely to welcome the prospect of greater certainty with the CRL regime, even if some would have liked to see more ambitious reform. The consultation runs until 15 November 2025.
Download: “Medieval Madness”: the Law Commission’s proposed reforms to the registration of chancel repair liabilities
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