The Land Registration Act 2002 has meant that overriding interests must be registered by midnight on 12th October 2013. However, because the liability only falls away at the point of first or next registration, there is in fact no deadline date when CRL stops.
If the liability has already been registered it is an obligation that lasts in perpetuity — so the conveyancer still needs to check the title documents.
What happens if the church has not registered their interest by 13th October 2013?
The Church STILL has the right to do so in perpetuity except if a property has changed hands post 13/10/2013 for valuable consideration and the title has been registered.
If the property/land is unregistered, the Parochial Church Council (PCC) have until first registration of this land in which to register their interest.
Where is the danger in a transaction?
The Church could register a property at any point up until a Priority Search is put in place, which may jeopardise the completion of the transaction and incur unrecoverable costs for the Buyer such as disbursements/legal fees/broker fees etc. If this occurs there will be a very expensive policy required by for the Buyer at the Sellers’ expense to cover any future CRL liabilities.
What is the Church doing?
The number of PCC’S looking to register notices against properties has significantly increased and currently 25 out of 43 Diocese in England & Wales have begun investigating the registration of properties.
In summary:
PCCs still have until the point of first or next registration for valuable consideration to register a notice against a property — even after 12th October 2013.
What should Conveyancers be doing after 12th October 2013?
Continue to screen for potential chancel repair liability with a ChancelCheck£® search and then insure away any potential risk with ChancelSure£® so that the Church’s actions don’t impact on any transactions.
Land Registry Practice Guide 66 relating to overriding interests has recently been updated, please click here to visit it. If you have any questions concerning CRL please contact our team on sales@clsl.co.uk or call us on 01732 897530
