I am told that scuba divers have a maxim known as the law of Martinis. The more depth markers you pass, the greater the euphoria. But at a certain point vertigo takes over, you go deeper than intended and end up with the bends. I felt that way after delving into the case of St John the Baptist, Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, in respect of repairs to the church's chancel roof. It has been running for 13 years and returned to the high court last week so the lawyers (if not the builders) could be paid. A job that would once have been done by Fred, Bill and a ladder will, by dint of state regulation and the law, cost somewhere short of half a million. As yet there is no money in sight.

The case concerns the responsibility of lay rectors for the repair of church chancels, imposed on owners of glebe lands at the Reformation after the dissolution of the monasteries. There are still some 5,000 such souls in England, including Andrew and Gail Wallbank. They inherited Glebe Farm in Aston Cantlow in 1970, but sublet it as they farmed in mid-Wales. One day in 1994 a repair bill from the parochial church council (PCC) for £95,260.84, including VAT, dropped through their front door, and their jaws dropped with it.

The bonus-laden brokers who are now swarming rural England had better know their hedges from their hedge funds, for rectorial liability is a time bomb under every enticing glebe. In particular, they should read the Act of Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, as amended by the Chancel Repairs Act of 1932 and the Parochial Church Council (Powers) Measure of 1956.

It so happens that the Wallbanks are not bonus-laden brokers but farmers of modest means. They knew that part of the Aston Cantlow farm carried rectorial liability, but they assumed this was "a gentlemanly agreement", honoured by occasional ex gratia contributions to church funds. They now offered the church the glebe land in part payment and pleaded the Bible, that "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb". But they were dealing not with God but the Church of England, whose bible is the law and whose patron saint is Shylock. The PCC pleaded its bond and sent in the bailiffs: "My deeds upon my head: I crave the law, the penalty and forfeit of my bond."

The result was pandemonium. Learned friends descended on Aston Cantlow like vultures on a fallen buck. They had not seen such a case of Valor Ecclesiasticus since Good Queen Bess. This would be the stuff of reputation. QCs were summoned. Dust was blown from court leet rolls, advowsons-in-gross and praedial tithe apportionments. Render unto God the things that are God's, but, by golly, Caesar would take his cut.

And so it has proved. The Wallbanks did not contest liability but pleaded that the bill was unfair and arbitrary. Churches were community buildings and the cost of their repair should be a public obligation. In particular, the tithes that supposedly covered the liability were abolished in 1936. The first judge in the case, Mr Justice Ferris, disagreed. He sympathised with the Wallbanks but could not deny the law. "The court awards it and the law doth grant it."

The Wallbanks were advised to appeal on the post-medieval basis that their "human right" to their property was being taxed disproportionately by a public body. The case transferred to the royal courts of justice and duly went big time. Here sat Sir Andrew Morritt, Lord Justice Walker and Lord Justice Sedley, and they overturned Mr Justice Ferris. A PCC was indeed a public body, creature of statute law, and its obligations to its historic buildings were patently not private but public. (They cited R v the Disciplinary Committee of the Jockey Club ex parte the Aga Khan, no less.) Besides, the Glebe Farm land was virtually unsellable with such a liability on its books.

This judgment was too much for the law lords to resist, and they attacked it. In June 2003 Lords Nicholls, Hope, Hobhouse, Scott and Rodger came to town. A PCC was not a public body at all. Church repairs were a matter of private contract. No human right was breached. (Lord Scott dissented, pointing out that the liability "was created by common law".) The case might present the law as an ass, but the Wallbanks should pay up. And by the way, in the intervening five years the chancel bill had doubled to £186,969, plus VAT. There would also be the Wallbanks' legal costs, running at £100,000 before this week and now somewhere in the stratosphere.

As so often with English law, reading appeal court judgments induces a heady exhilaration. Nobody becomes a law lord without being able to argue either side of a case, and I admit to swaying back and forth during Wallbank v John the Baptist. If so much manpower had only been applied to the corbels, collars and purlins of the church in question, the job would have been done in a week.

The Wallbanks knew they were formally liable. Cautious lay rectors even take out insurance against such liability. The Wallbanks are also rentiers and must accept that this can involve risk. Many middle-class families are struck by financial catastrophy, be it a collapsed pension, a sick relative or a daughter with a vocation for the stage.

I also accept that many English village churches are seriously distressed. Repair costs have soared under the Blair government's regulatory blitz, while round them roam the Jags and Range Rovers of weekenders whose commitment to the locality is often close to zero. The temptation must be strong to hit them with every charge and every law to hand.

Yet this must be a crazy way of restoring Britain's most ancient and valued historic buildings. Not a penny has yet gone into repairs to Aston Cantlow. Instead a clearly stupid law had been found wanting, a law that the court of appeal sensibly reinterpreted in an impeccable judgment. The law lords could have let that interpretation stand, even if in their view it meant admitting Bassanio's plea: "To do a great right, do a little wrong."

Instead the law lords perpetrated a disaster. They have declared the parish churches of England private religious buildings whose custodians are private bodies and whose upkeep is not in a public interest. This is not just bad law, since the parochial and rectorial system is in legal line of descent a part of English local government. Can judges not read history? Their judgment is also a most simplistic interpretation of the public realm.

Even in secular France and Germany parish churches are maintained from local taxes. In Britain the church is "established" at law and its proceedings are governed by law. As such its glorious buildings should be a charge on every community. Their lordships should make amends by repairing Aston Cantlow roof for free, and God help it.

A couple who found themselves bound by medieval canon law to repair the chancel of a 13th-century village church were presented with a final demand in the High Court yesterday for more than £200,000.

Andrew and Gail Wallbank estimate that their 17-year legal battle over the cost of restoring the church of St John the Baptist in Aston Cantlow, Warks, has cost them a further £200,000 in legal costs.

The initial repair bill, presented in 2000, was about £95,000 but, after a legal challenge that ended in the House of Lords in June 2003, the cost of the work being commissioned by the parish council of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley has more than doubled.

At a hearing in London to assess the extent of the couple's liability, Mr Justice Lewison reached a figure of £186,969, plus VAT on some items in the repairs.

Mr Wallbank, 66, a retired sheep farmer, and his wife, 59, acquired Glebe Farm in Aston Cantlow in 1974. It included glebe land whose owners have been "lay rectors" of the parish since 1743. As such, they were required to pay for repairs to the chancel — the area surrounding the altar.

In exchange for this burden, rectors were formerly entitled to receive tithes — the tenth of the product of the parishioners' labour — but these were abolished in 1936.

The law lords ruled in 2003 that the Wallbanks had bought the farm land with full knowledge that they would be liable for repairs.

Yesterday, Mrs Wallbank said: "The Church of England has made it inevitable that we will have to sell Glebe Farm.

"The law is in a mess. The Church is not living by its teaching and is hiding behind an archaic law."

But, said Mr Wallbank, no one would buy the farm with the repair liability attached.

A couple have been ordered to pay more than £200,000 for repairs to a church, which falls within land they inherited after the death of an elderly relative.

A High Court judge said sheep farmers Andrew and Gail Wallbank, of Carno, Powys, must pay £186,969, plus VAT.

It was the climax of a seven year legal fight, with the couple considered "lay rectors" on the Warwickshire farmland.

The £95,000 cost to renovate St John the Baptist, Aston Cantlow, has more than doubled since the case began.

William Shakespeare's parents, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, are believed to have married in 1557 in the church, part of which dates from the 13th Century.

A series of legal challenges led to the House of Lords in June 2003 over the work, commissioned by the parish council of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley.

Mr and Mrs Wallbank, aged 66 and 59, are liable for the costs under the 1932 Chancel Repairs Act.

The Wallbanks own Glebe Farm, Aston Cantlow near Stratford-upon-Avon, which includes a field called Clanacre.

This is classified as rectoral property and makes the couple "lay rectors" of the parish.

After the latest hearing, Mrs Wallbank said: "The Church of England has made it inevitable that we will have to sell Clanacre Farm. The law is in a mess."

She also accused the church of "not living by its teaching" and of hiding behind an "archaic law".

Mr Wallbank said they were caught in a vicious circle because no one would buy the farm with the church repair liability attached to it.

But to get rid of the liability they would have to pay money up front for repair costs that might arise in the distant future.

At the High Court hearing in London on Monday, to assess the extent of the couple's liability, Mr Justice Lewison reached the final figure on some, but not all items in the repair schedule.

Vicar of St John the Baptist, Father David Addley, said he was pleased the issue had been resolved.

"It's been hanging over us all this time. I'm pleased it's at an end."

He added that the church had a number of structural problems that needed attention.

"The roof above the chancel is quite heavy and the walls are beginning to bulge and this has implications for things like the windows."

A couple who lost a seven-year legal battle against an ecclesiastical law that required them to pay the cost of repairs to an ancient parish church were ordered to meet the final demand for more than £200,000 yesterday.

The initial bill presented to Andrew and Gail Wallbank for restoration of St John the Baptist Church in Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, was about £95,000.

After a series of legal challenges, including a hearing at the House of Lords in June 2003, the cost of the work being commissioned by the parish council of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley has more than doubled.

At a High Court hearing in London yesterday to assess the extent of the couple’s liability, Mr Justice Lewison reached a figure of £186,969, plus VAT on some but not all the items in the repair schedule.

The Wallbanks own Glebe Farm, in Aston Cantlow. The site includes a field called Clanacre, which is classified as rectorial property, making them “lay rectors” of the parish.

The couple, who also have a sheep farm in Carno, Powys, became liable for restoration costs under the Chancel Repairs Act 1932, which is based on centuries-old law.

The Act has been widely criticised as unfair and the Law Society of England and Wales has called for it to be reformed.

After the judgment, Mrs Wallbank, 59, said: “The Church of England has made it inevitable that we will have to sell Clanacre Farm. The law is in a mess. The Church is not living by its teaching and is hiding behind an archaic law.

“We have stood against it for 17 years in all, during which we have been bullied and have even had the bailiffs round.” None of the repairs to the church has yet been carried out.

Mr Wallbank, 66, said that they were caught in a vicious circle because no one would buy the farm with the church repair liability attached to it, and yet to get rid of the liability they would have to pay money for repair costs that might arise in the distant future.

In the House of Lords, the Wallbanks lost their claim that their obligation to pay for church repairs was unenforceable because it contravened the Human Rights Act.

The law lords’ decision reversed a ruling by the Court of Appeal that the liability of lay owners of former “glebe” land to provide money towards the cost of repairs to the chancel of the parish church operated in an arbitrary and unfair way.

The appeal judges had ruled that the liability was a form of taxation that did not meet the basic standard set by human rights laws protecting citizens’ possessions from the demands of the State.

Yesterday the Wallbanks said that the church authorities were demanding “a Rolls-Royce job when more limited repair work would suffice”. They argued that the extent of their liability towards repair costs should be limited to keeping the chancel — the area surrounding the altar — wind and waterproof. They relied on a church law website for this defence, but Mr Justice Lewison said that it was “unfortunately not the law”.

He said that Mr Wallbank, in arguing that the action against them was “anachronistic and unfair”, had said that the Church should stick to its teaching — that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb”. The Wallbanks had the Law Commission, the Law Society and “many distinguished academics” on their side, the judge said. “But the courts must take the law as they find it.”

After the judgment, the Wallbanks said that to meet the demands of the Church they had tried to make a gift of the ancient glebe land, but this was not accepted. The church authorities would be able to “inflict this misery on thousands of other affected people”, they said. Mr Wallbank said that he and his wife were not the only owners of rectoral land at Aston Cantlow but, as far as he knew, none of the others had faced such demands. He added that some other dioceses had written off the financial liabilities of lay rectors.

The Wallbanks, who have already had to pay more than £100,000 in legal costs for earlier court hearings, were also ordered to pay the costs of yesterday’s proceedings.

Homeowners who live near churches that are in need of repair may face bills for thousands of pounds after a 17-year-long legal battle reaches its climax in the High Court this week.

Under a law dating back to medieval times, Andrew Wallbank, 66, and his wife, Gail, 59, could be ordered to contribute as much as £216,000 to the upkeep of St John the Baptist church in Aston Cantlow, near Stratford- upon-Avon. According to ecclesiastical tithe maps, their property — Glebe Farm, a six-bedroom, 14th-century house — has “chancel repair liability”, which means that its owners bear automatic responsibility for repairing the church’s chancel.

The Wallbanks inherited the property, with 179 acres of land, in two parcels in 1974 and 1986, but say they first learnt of their obligations in 1990, when they were presented with a bill for church repairs of £6,000.

The couple contested the demand, eventually winning their case in the Court of Appeal in 2001. The Church of England then took the case to the House of Lords, which two years later ruled against the Wallbanks. However, it postponed a decision on how much they should pay.

The repair bill, meanwhile, has jumped to more than £210,000, while the couple face another £200,000 or so in legal costs. What began as a £6,000 bill could end up costing them nearer half a million.

“If we must pay £216,000 and legal costs, we will have to sell our home,” says Andrew Wallbank, a former church warden at St John the Baptist. “But nobody will buy the place with this debt hanging over it.”

This week’s ruling will have implications not just for the Wallbanks, but also, potentially, for many homeowners across Britain. Last May, the Church Commissioners issued a note citing the Wallbank case asking Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) — the local bodies that levy charges — to conduct property audits in their areas.

ChancelCheck, a firm that conducts specialist searches into residential property, says PCCs in nine of the C of E’s 43 dioceses in England are now considering taking action against individual homeowners.

“In most cases, repair costs are likely to be hundreds or thousands of pounds, rather than hundreds of thousands,” says Nick Francis, co-founder of ChancelCheck. “But there may be some who will end up with bills similar to those facing the Wallbanks.

“We’re talking about at least 100,000 properties here, and their owners may not even know. Even if it doesn’t affect them immediately, it may stop their home being sold if buyers discover this liability.”

Conventional legal searches when houses are purchased are unlikely to pick up on this.

Properties in England that are most likely to be affected are period homes close to churches. Owners may have lived in them for years, yet be unaware of their potential status as “lay rectors”.

It is not just country properties that are affected, however. One vendor, who prefers to remain anonymous, is in the process of selling his four-bedroom house in Fulham, London, for £675,000. A search by the buyer’s solicitor revealed that the house has a potential chancel repair liability. “I had never heard of it before and didn’t even know where the church was,” he says. “The solictors wanted me to pay £100 indemnity insurance to remove the house from the liability, but I refused.” In his case, the buyers have not been put off the sale. Others, though, may be more wary.

Last year, the Law Society asked the government to abolish chancel charges, describing them as random and unpredictable because they fall due only when repairs are outstanding.

The government says merely that it is keeping the position under review. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, PCCs have only until October 2013 to register their interest with the Land Registry against any properties that they believe carry liability for repairs.

The C of E is unrepentant. In Aston Cantlow, Rev David Addley, vicar of St John the Baptist, says the Wallbanks have only themselves to blame. “The fact we’ve been negotiating for 17 years and haven’t reached agreement speaks volumes,” he says.

Rev Mervyn Roberts, spokesman for the Coventry diocese in which Aston Cantlow lies, says it will no longer negotiate with the couple.

“We’ve reached the hard cash question now — the talks are over,” he says. “This is clearly a critical test case, with ramifications for the Church as a whole. There may be widespread effects, but that remains to be seen.”

Andrew Wallbank is equally sure of his case’s significance. “We’re guinea pigs,” he says. “Others will follow. Tot up the roof repair costs for almost any church in the country, and you soon reach a big figure. Anyone in a house with a historic link to a church, even a tenuous one, is now vulnerable.”

How to protect yourself

Q: Will a routine legal search identify if a house has chancel charge liability?

A: No, because legal searches use Ordnance Survey maps — chancel charges are shown only on historic ecclesiastical tithe maps.

Q: So how do I know if my home is liable?

A: By checking with a specialist company, such as ChancelCheck (0870 013 0872, www.clsl.co.uk), Chancel Repair Searches (www.chancelrepairsearches.co.uk) or House Detectives (www.house-detectives.co.uk). Search costs start at about £11.75.

Q: Can I do my own research?

A: You can, but it is time-consuming. Contact the National Archives at Kew in west London (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk).

Q: What do I do if I find I am liable to pay for church repairs?

A: Insure against a charge. The cost will vary depending on your property’s size and term of insurance. Policies start at about £60 for a house with two acres, effective for 20 years.

Of all the things you've fantasised about spending a few hundred thousand pounds on, I bet doing up your local church isn't one of them.

So you can imagine how Gail and Andrew Wallbank, who live in Wales, felt when they received a letter demanding £6,000 to replace the windows of an ancient church inWarwickshire.

The source of the problem is a farm that the couple inherited from Gail's father, and which is let to her brother.

When Gail's father first bought the property in the late '60s, he noticed a clause in the deeds stating that the owner of the land was responsible for the upkeep of the chancel of the local church.

He queried this with the vicar, but was assured that it was an ancient law that was no longer enforceable, and nothing more was heard about it until 1990.

Then Mr and Mrs Wallbank, who had by now inherited the farm, received the news that, as the owners 'rectorial land' (land that once belonged to a medieval church), they are deemed 'lay rectors' and are liable for the upkeep of the area near the altar known as the chancel.

Wallbanks vs the Parochial Church Council of Aston Cantlow

"We were very surprised," says Andrew Wallbank. "We said that if they removed the legal obligation we would be happy to make a donation to the church. But they refused.

"We never dreamt it would lead to this long running problem." Over the past 17 years the case of the Wallbanks vs the Parochial Church Council of Aston Cantlow has been in and out of court.

Initially the High Court found them liable for the chancel repair costs, but the Appeal Court overturned this, ruling that the law was contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The church then appealed to the House of Lords who decided that a PCC (Parochial Church Council) is exempt from human rights laws, and so the Wallbanks must pay up.

Judgement Day

Because of further degeneration of the building over the past 17 years, and the legal costs incurred by both sides, the couple's potential bill, which will be decided this week, has now risen to around £420,000.

In order to pay the Wallbanks, who have seven children, will have to sell the farm in Warwickshire, though, as Andrew Wallbank points out, while it has the chancel liability attached to it the property is unsaleable.

"By trying to challenge this law we seem to have firmly established it," says Andrew Wallbank, who, ironically, is a church warden at his local parish in Wales.

3.5 million acres of land in England and Wales, and the homes, schools, hospitals and factories built on it, are now thought tbe potentially at risk from this archaic law.

You don't have to live near a church, or in the countryside (many urban parishes, such as Fulham in London are at risk), and liability is unlikely to be noted on your deeds or at the Land Registry.

Chancel Check

So what would the Wallbanks advise anyone buying a new house to do?

"Get your solicitor to check. It's not easy athe records often aren't correct, and it's difficult to say how extensive the problem really is, but it could have serious implications for a lot of people."

Off the back of the Wallbanks' case at least once company has been set up that will ascertain your risk, and provide insurance policies to protect you in the event of a claim by the church.

Nick Francis, from the company Chancel Check, says that in the past carrying out a full chancel repair search was simply too complex, and the risk too obscure, so solicitors didn't bother.

But, according to Francis, 35 per cent of parishes are at risk, and, of all the full searches Chancel Check has carried out 14 per cent have been found to be on liable land.

This service is not available to the public, but a general search can be accessed by conveyancers for £10 plus VAT, and an indemnity policy is available from £69.88 for 25 years' cover.

The Future - Count Down To 2013

Some believe the risk is being exaggerated by those with a vested interest. Francis, naturally, disagrees, pointing out that the PCC would have dropped the case when the Wallbanks won at appeal if they weren't interested in setting a precedent.

"We're aware of eight dioceses that have instructed the PCCs to look into it," says Francis. "Members of the PCCs actually have a duty to find these funds, or they could become potentially personally liable."

Under the Land Registration Act 2002 the church has until 30 September 2013 to hunt down and register chancel repair liabilities at the Land Registry.

The good news is that if they are not registered by then, and the proprty changes hands, any liabilities will become unenforceable.

Current owners will, however, remain liable, though Nick Francis believes that the likelihood of being targeted after this date will decrease.

There are an estimated 5,200 churches in England and Wales that could benefit from funds raised from chancel repair liability, so over the next six years we can expect a flurry of activifrom the PCCs.

Goodbye Grants

Maintaining crumbling historical buildings is an expensive business, and, following on from this case, the usual sources of grants, such as English Heritage, may now refuse pay up where there is a chancel repair liability.

Steve Jenkins, Press Officer from the Church of England, says: "Churches are charitable bodies and they have a duty to look after a building that is, in many cases, part of the history of the country.

"It's up to each individual church if they take it up or not. But it's something that rarely causes discord. We welcome the fact that such liabilities are now being recorded through the Land Registry.

Meanwhile, depending on next week's decision on the Wallbank's case, Gail and Andrew Wallbank may be looking for a buyer for their Warwickshire farm.

It comes with beautiful views, all mod cons, and one particularly unusual feature - ongoing 'blank cheque book' bills for repairs to the local church.

The potential liability for chancel repairs continues to be a real concern for many conveyancers, since the HL confirmed the validity of such claims in Aston Cantlow [2003]. The liability to contribute towards the cost of chancel repairs only affects parishes in which there is a mediaeval church. Whilst that will obviously affect many rural communities, it is also important to appreciate that it can apply in towns and cities (eg Brighton, Manchester, Bedford, Lancaster and even parts of London, such as Fulham, can be covered).

The theoretical answer is to do a full search of the records at the National Archive but that is frankly unrealistic; apart from the considerable time delay, it can cost as much as £150.

In recognition of the increased awareness of chancel repairs liability, the new edition of the Conveyanc/ng Handbook says that 'where the liability is not recorded in the title deeds, consideration should be given as to whether it is appropriate to make enquiries. Enquiries may be made using commercial products that determine if a property is located in a parish where there remains a potential to enforce chancel repair liability, but these products are not property specific... Insurance may be considered as an option following the results of a search, or as an alternative to searching'.

The main product in use these days seems to be ChanceiCheck which is advertised heavily in the legal press. This does an electronic search of mediaeval parish boundaries to see whether the property is within an at-risk boundary (but it is not property-specific). The cost is £10 + VAT. If the property is within such a parish then insurance is offered (eg £60 for £250,000 residential cover; £155 for £250,000 commercial cover). For more on this see our June issue (p7).

THE plot thickens! Even more complications have emerged about "Chancel repair liability" (CRL) - an almost forgotten law which could affect many properties in Tynedale.

The Hexham Courant carried an article last month about this ancient relic which arms some parishes with the right to demand church renovation funds from the owners of properties on former church land.

Hexham solicitor Christine Billany offered a warning from the legal viewpoint.

"I have a number of clients around Tynedale who have had searches undertaken and their parishes have been identified as potentially holding CRL," she said.

And now the Rector of Humshaugh, the Rev Michael Thompson, is offering further information from the clergyman's standpoint.

Mr Thompson, who serves the parishes of Humshaugh with Simonburn and Wark, explains: "The chances of incurring CRL are greatly diminished if you buy within territory which was, between the 17th and early 19th centuries, served by a rector rather than a vicar.

"The difference between a rector and a vicar has been widely forgotten. A clergyman in an ancient parish who enjoyed the whole of the parish's church or 'tithe' income was styled 'rector' and with that income came duties for certain areas of church upkeep.

"A vicar was a clergyman employed - say by a monastery - to run the church for them while the monastery kept most of the income, so he didn't have to pay for repairs.

"Over the centuries these repair responsibilities have disappeared for clerical rectors. It's hard to put your finger on exactly when, but it must have been some time after the church at Wark was opened in 1818. Its chancel was built deliberately small, because the rector at that time was responsible for its upkeep," he said.

But if ordained rectors have lost their CRL, it could still be lurking in the parchments for those who own former church land. They could be lay rectors without knowing it.

Mr Thompson says that the complication dates back 500 years, from the time of King Henry VIII's Reformation of the Church of England.

When the monasteries were closed and everyone scrambled to buy church land going cheap, they also accepted the liabilities to keep the church repaired - that is, they became lay rectors.

Then in the 18th century, when much open land was enclosed, plots were given to the descendants of these lay tithe buyers, to compensate them for lost land and rights.

Mr Thompson says: "It is the purchase of land which was awarded after an enclosure, to a lay rector in lieu of a right to 'greater tithes', that carries the greatest risk of CRL today."

But even if you discover your property is subject to CRL, don't despair.

Mr Thompson explains: "The Chancel Repairs Act of 1932 gives the liable party an opportunity to raise questions as to the need for, extent and cost of the repairs.

"Also, a modern lay rector could raise questions about the degree to which their predecessors kept a chancel in good order. In some parishes there is ample evidence that the custom was to merely keep the structure wind-proof and water-tight," he said.

"In short, the existence of a CRL does not entitle a church council to assume that someone else is fully responsible for the costs of an elaborate restoration scheme. Having a lay rector is not all about making someone else repair the chancel of your church.

"I spent 13 years as vicar of an ancient parish church, during which time no claims for CRL were made. Nonetheless, we ensured that solicitors were reminded of the liability when land was sold and we informed interested parties of matters concerning the chancel," he said.

"In 20th century Lincolnshire, one lay rector successfully evaded CRL with a counter claim that a vicar had removed his customary seat from the chancel.

"In another case, a claim could not be made because the church council had caused damage to the chancel through the unauthorised use of emulsion paint, which had not allowed the ancient fabric to 'breathe' properly.

"But where the documentary evidence of liability is overwhelming, the existence of 20th century statutes on the subject render it unwise for the liable party to go to court claiming that the whole issue is archaic," warned Mr Thompson.

A Warwickshire landowner discovered this to his cost in 2004. He fought all the way to the House of Lords, but ended up having to pay more than £95,000 in CRL to help repair his local church. It was this recent test case which has breathed new life into the medieval law.

Now the Government plans to help home buyers avoid the CRL pitfall.

A question about CRL is planned for the new Home Information Packs (HIPs), due to be launched throughout the UK next year.

Also, solicitors are being warned that they may be liable if they fail to advise homeowners to insure against CRL.

To get up-to-date information on CRL, consult your solicitor, or check out an internet company called ChancelCheck, which offers to identify areas where the old duty may still apply, and insure homeowners against church repair bills for 20 years.

SHEILA RICKARDS thought she had her Brighton house sale neatly wrapped up when, at the last minute, she received a surprise demand that she spend nearly £200 insuring the property against an obscure medieval obligation to fund repairs to her local church. It’s something that many thousands of other house-sellers may have to expect as a result of a new clause planned for the Government’s information packs that come in next June — and the efforts of an ambitious company that has spotted a legal gap in the market.

Rickards had agreed the sale in December, as she wanted a quick deal freeing her to join her daughter in Australia. “Just as we were about to exchange contracts, my buyer’s solicitor sent me another form. It said, ‘This property has a potential chancel repair liability’ and asked if I had indemnity insurance. The solicitor also sent an insurance policy which asked for £193 for 25 years’ cover.”

Chancel repair liability is a legal leftover from the Middle Ages that enables some parishes to call upon owners of properties on former church or glebe land to fund repairs to their church buildings. Many parishes gave up or sold this right over the centuries, but up to 5,000 may still be able to claim it.

About 500,000 properties may be affected. In law it is classed as an “over-riding interest” — even if it’s not on your house documents or recorded at the Land Registry (and it probably isn’t), affected homeowners may still be liable.

Chancel repair liability languished in legal obscurity until 2003, when the parish church of Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, demanded £95,260 for repair work from the owner of a house that had a long-known chancel repair liability.

The owners fought the case to the House of Lords, where the Church of England won on appeal. The problem prompted a typical British compromise — the Government gave churches until 2013 to register chancel repair rights with the Land Registry. After that date, any unregistered right will cease to exist after the house has changed hands.

“My conveyancer had never heard of this,” says Rickards. “I object to having to pay the money. But I just want to get on with the sale. The insurance money will be taken out of the sale price by the buyer’s solicitors when they complete. I’ve written to my MP to complain.”

Her letter is unlikely to stop the rise of chancel repair liability. The Government plans to include a question about it in the new home information packs, and solicitors are being warned that they may be liable if they fail to ask homeowners to insure against liability.

A company called ChancelCheck identifies areas where medieval tithes may still apply — and then offers to insure homeowners against church repair bills for the next 20 years.

Matt le Breton, co-founder of Kent-based ChancelCheck, says he set up the company to capitalise on the fact that discovering whether your house is liable for chancel repair payments is a complex business. Only homes built on certain plots within certain ancient parish boundaries could be hit. To find the answer means negotiating an array of arcane reports and maps in the Public Record Office at Kew. ChancelCheck’s database can, however, quickly discover if you are in a problem parish.

Le Breton says: “About 1.4 million conveyances are done a year in Britain. It’s impossible for all the conveyancers and solicitors to go into Kew to check this. Our technology makes it possible for them to check it as part of a house sale. We believe that they must do this or face being sued by owners if the church suddenly lands them with a repair bill.”

For £11.75, ChancelCheck’s mapping system puts your modern plot on the historical parish boundary to see if a church could still hit you for repairs. “It doesn’t matter if you live in a rural or urban area — the risk is the same,” le Breton claims. If there are potentially liable plots in your parish, you can ignore this fact, insure against it with ChancelCheck or investigate whether your house is on a liable plot. But you don’t really want to take the latter route, according to le Breton. “We’re talking about a medieval law, so it may not be 100 per cent accurate. If you find out that you are on a plot with tithe liability, your solicitor is bound under the Land Registration Act 2002 to put that on your property’s title. So you would be doing the Church’s work for it, and then ChancelCheck would not insure you.”

The Church of England was unable to clarify matters. “It’s not the national Church of England doing this, it’s the local Church of England,” says a spokesman. “The national Church has no overview of what individual parishes decide.”

Each parish has its own property rights. Allyson Colby, a legal expert, says some parishes are pursuing those rights: “I know a solicitor in Worcester whom the Church has instructed to put claims in for as many chancel repair liability titles as he can,” she says. “Some areas are happy to try to enforce their rights. Some are not. It’s the luck of the draw where you live.”

You may not be a regular church attender.

Indeed the percentage of the adult population on Church of England rolls is a mere 3.1%.

How would you feel to receive a demand for a contribution towards the repair of your local parish church?

The answer is that you would probably be fairly relaxed if it was a request for a voluntary contribution – and fairly perplexed and dismayed if it was in the form of a demand.

The relevant liability is for chancel repair.

It goes back to the dissolution of the monasteries, but researching the original records is difficult and frequently inconclusive.

It would appear that about one third of the 15,000 parish churches in England or Wales are affected and they currently operate as overriding interests under the s.70(1)(c), Land Registry Act 2002.

However, their status as such will only continue until 12th October 2013.

How has this confusion arisen?

Essentially as a result of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The decision of the House of Lords in Aston CantlowPCC v Wallbank (2004)1AC 546 reversed the Court of Appeal by holding that the enforcement by a Parochial Church Council of the liability of a lay rector to repair the chancel of a church did not contravene the Human Rights legislation.

As a result, the defendants who owned a mere 52 acres of agricultural land were held liable to the costs of repairing the church chancel which amounted to £95,260 – in addition to very considerable legal costs!

In the light of this potential liability, what is the current conveyancing practice to safeguard the property purchaser?

There are about 1.2 million conveyancing transactions each year, and the most obvious answer is thought to be a search facility with an organization known as ChancelCheck who offer a search facility for £10.00 plus VAT.

But because of the lack of original records, very many searches do not provide a conclusive answer so the next step is to consider insurance which for the purchaser and mortgagee is at a cost of £59.88 but to cover successors in title as well, the cost rises to £155.

And yet this cover is still limited in effect since, for example, the cover does not extend to any loss in the value of the policyholder’s property.

After October 2013, chancel repair liability will still be enforceable against any freehold title which is unregistered.

The right to register the liability will not affect the status of the chancel repair obligation, but there will be no right to enforce this until a caution is registered.

And in accordance with s.29, LRA 2002, the liability cannot be enforced against a purchaser for value.

So between now and 2013, there is likely to be something of a rush by church bodies to arrange for the registration of the liability.

What is the proper conveyancing practice in the light of these developments and the increasing cost of insurance cover?

Local conveyancing solicitors will be able to develop a picture of the incidence of chancel repair liabilities in a particular area but, in the absence of local knowledge, there is little alternative to the search – which will very rarely indicate that there is no liability BUT merely that the possibility of liability cannot be excluded.

Householders across East Anglia may have to pay for repairs to parish churches - because of a law dating back to medieval times.

Legal experts warned last night that many parishes had a legal right to ask people to pay for repairs to a church's chancel - where the altar and choir stalls are - if the land where they live was once owned by the Church of England.

One expert said that cases of potential 'chancel repairs liability' had already emerged in Norwich and villages on the East Anglian coast.

Although the exact number of homes liable for chancel repairs is unclear, it is estimated that as many as one in three parishes in England and Wales have some legal claim to have their costs met.

But the true extent of parishes' rights to claim financial aid to help keep a chancel wind and rain-proof is likely to emerge in the next few years, after a change in the law in 2002.

The Land Registration Act (2002) obliged churches to register their legal claims over other properties by October 2013 or lose their rights - a move which could see parishes examine centuries-old records.

Some lawyers are already carrying out chancel repair liability searches as a matter of routine when dealing with the sale of houses.

Insurance companies are also beginning to offer chancel repair indemnity policies, to protect householders against the cost of claims from parishes for 25 years.

In 2003, the House of Lords upheld one parish's right to claim £95,000 from a family farm in Warwickshire.

Although the laws on chancel repairs stretch back to before the days of Henry VIII and the Reformation, parishes' rights were confirmed by the 1932 Chancel Repairs Act - although at that time an unknown number of landowners 'bought-out' their liability from the Church.

It is also understood that some parishes in England and Wales have already renounced their right to claim repair costs.

The Ven Clifford Offer, Archdeacon of Norwich, said he would be surprised if a significant number of parishes still had chancel repair rights.

"I think it's likely to be a smaller number of parishes than people fear," he said.

"The responsibility rests with the parochial church councils, and how many of those will want to do the research, I'm not sure.

"Certainly the information can be found, but I think it's quite a lengthy process.

"When you come down to the House of Lords case, it came down to individuals. But for many of these chancels, the liability rests with corporate bodies.

"For example, the Dean and Chapter of Norwich have responsibility for 20 chancels and some of the big Cambridge colleges also have liabilities for chancels.

"That's the difficulty - some bodies are better placed to meet these liabilities than some individuals."

Asked whether a parish in Norfolk was likely to exercise its rights under chancel repairs, the archdeacon said: "It poses an interesting question.

"If there is a liability and [parishes] realise they have a duty as trustees to maximise their income, they almost have a duty to follow it through.

"But it's a matter of law and legal liability - that's the difficulty."

Sarah Franks, head of residential property at the law firm in Mills and Reeve, said the issue was of likely to be of growing "relevance" in the next few years.

"For a very long time, few people took notice of the issue and it is still a very muddy area," Mrs Franks said.

"But the likelihood is that some churches will start to look back through their records in the next few years to see if they have any interests that need to be registered.

"It can be anywhere. People seem to think it only applies to rectories - or houses in streets called "rectory close" or something like that. But it doesn't necessarily work in that way. It doesn't even need to be a property in the locality of a church - we've come across liabilities in all sorts of places.

"We know, for example, that there are places in Norwich and some places along the coast that have potential liabilities."

Chris Hall, president of the National Association of Estate Agents, added: "It is an increasing issue but generally it's not having an effect on house prices. But the advice is beware - there probably is a property somewhere that will cost someone."

But the issue of chancel repairs also comes amid wider concerns about the availability of public funding to keep churches in a good state of repair.

Malcolm Crowder , of the Norwich Preservation Trust, said: "Quite frankly, for any historic building, finding funding is becoming increasingly difficult.

"Churches do have some help in the tax rules in the form of repairs being zero-rated for VAT, but nevertheless, funding is very restricted and tight and very difficult to find for any structure, whether ecclesiastical or not."

We are in the process of selling our 1930s house in south-west London. Our purchaser's solicitor requested a chancel repair liability report, which indicates that our property is within the historical boundary of a parish that continues to have a potential liability. The report does not mention to which church or parish it refers, and the liability was not apparent when we bought the house five years ago.

Coincidentally, the company that discovered the liability also sells insurance to protect against the possibility of chancel repair costs and our buyer would like us to pay this. Is this a genuine risk or is it a way for a company to make money?

Lorna Vestey writes: It is certainly good business for the company, and I would demand more detail - it is only the ownership of certain land within such parishes that may carry a liability. However, I might also want the insurance, although who should pay for it is another matter.

Chancel repair sounds medieval and in origin it is. Different types of liability, some dating from before 1189, benefited more than 5,000 pre-Reformation churches. Many are linked to the right of the Church to collect tithes.

The 1925 Land Registration Act confirmed such liabilities as "over-riding interests", and the 1932 Chancel Repairs Act maintained the liability attached to "rectorial" land for the repair of parish churches, whereby non-clergy owners of certain land that once belonged to a rectory became lay rectors and could be charged with the old rectorial responsibility for church repair.

In June 2003, the House of Lords overturned a Court of Appeal decision and one unfortunate couple who owned a farm containing a rectorial field had to pay a £95,000 repair bill for their local parish church.

It is because of this case that purchasers' solicitors have started investigating liabilities, many long forgotten, as have parish councils, which have an obligation to maximise their income (www.churchlaw.co.uk).

To tidy things up, the Government made a Transitional Provisions Order, which took effect in October 2003. This preserves the status of chancel repair liability for 10 years. So the liability will bind successive owners of a property until 2013, even if it is not entered in a register kept by the Land Registry. After that, the liability will only bind new owners of registered land if it is protected by such an entry.

Lorna Vestey is a former partner of a blue-chip London estate agency.

Worried about your house purchase? Wondering whether you need building regulations to knock through your living room? Or do you want to re-mortgage? In her monthly columns, solicitor Stephanie Power of TG Baynes answers your questions.

I have just received a quotation from a solicitor for buying a new home and it refers to a Chancel Repair Search. I have not heard of this before, is this usual?

Chancel Repair Searches have always existed, although have not necessarily been considered appropriate to all properties. The purpose of the search is to ascertain whether the property falls within the boundaries of a church which continues to impose Chancel Repair Liability. This is an ancient right benefiting the Church and applies even if the property has changed hands.

Not all churches are affected; the Church must be within the Church of England, date from the medieval era or earlier and must have a Vicar, not a Rector. If found to be the case, the owners of the property may be required to contribute to or meet the costs of repairing the Church. The search itself is quite specific and will determine if the Church has registered an entry against that particular property. It must be carried out in person at the Public Records Office and costs £100 plus VAT. Recent legislation requires the Church of England to register its Chancel interests at Land Registry prior to 2013. After this date, if the interest is not registered, it will cease to have effect. This, together with a recent case where homeowners were ordered to pay £95,000 towards the costs incurred by their local Church, has brought Chancel Searches to the forefront.

Owing to the increase in awareness, there are now different options available to buyers. Various websites and search agents have been established, which conduct initial searches at a significantly reduced cost. This will confirm if there is a potential liability and if so, they can offer the option to affect Indemnity Insurance or to carry out the full search at the Public Records Office. The insurance should provide you with cover in the event the Church made a claim against the property. Which option suits your needs will depend on individual circumstances.

The latest HMLR Practice Guide (15) issued in December adds a new slant to carrying out a full chancel repair search at the National Archive as it confirms that if one discovers a property specific risk, registration of this overriding interest is required. ChancelCheck® continues to provide the solution whereby conveyancers can identify potential risk (for £11.75 inc VAT) and instigate cost effective ChancelSure® indemnity cover, without having to disclose or register information with the HMLR – order from STL today.

Welsh Hazard

A number of clients have questioned the need to carry out ChancelChecks® in Wales as the Conveyancing Handbook incorrectly infers this is not necessary. We can confirm that chancel repair liability is alive and well and continuing to reside in Wales as well as England! ChancelCheck® is equally effective for screening Welsh property.

The Bishop of London has said that some of England's oldest churches are in such disrepair that they will close without an emergency cash injection of £60 million.

The Rt Rev Richard Chartres yesterday urged the Government to increase grants to repair and maintain "some of our most medieval jewels", reports the Daily Telegraph.

As churches struggle with declining congregations they face an annual repair bill estimated at £120 million, with a backlog of repairs totalling £373 million.

The bishop said: "There is a real question whether the achievements of the tens of thousands of volunteers who help to maintain our churches are sustainable.

"If no extra money is forthcoming we will see a spate of church closures and losses to whole communities of buildings that cannot be sustained.

"The Church of England is responsible for 45 per cent of the Grade I listed buildings in the country and it is time that the Government recognised the vital role played by local churches in communities across the country."

Bishop Chartres will present a paper to the General Synod next month outlining the crisis facing the Church of England as a result of a fall in repair grants from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Bishop compared the £26 million grant it has received this year to spend on its 13,000 listed churches with the £23.1 million grant the Arts Council gives to the Royal Opera House alone.

He called on the Government to recognise that the role of churches today went far beyond the worshipping community. Besides benefiting Christians, they were a venue for mother and child groups, judo classes, amateur dramatics and food fairs.

"In rural areas, the church building can often be the only one available for community use when schools, shops, pubs have gone," he said. "The potential of church buildings to help deliver essential services in rural areas is only starting to be realised."

The Church of England has long said that the Government's role in maintaining churches falls far short of the levels provided in other European countries. In the absence of sufficient Government funding, historic churches seek money from donations, campaigns and bodies such as English Heritage.

English Heritage said it was committed to securing the future of historic churches and was conducting research to identify ways to raise congregation numbers. A spokesman said: "We agree that the £26 million per year available for repairs to listed places of worship under the joint English Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund places of worship scheme is not enough but this is currently the limit of our funds for this repair scheme.

"The results of this research will enable us to identify how best to keep our parish churches alive and thriving and help us to make a cast iron case to the Government for greater financial support."

The story in the newspaper accompanies an editorial which suggests that the maintenance of church fabric is "too much of a job for the established Church."

"The Government must take this burden upon itself, for the sake of the nation, to save these incomparable landmarks of its culture" the paper says.

The Church of England has assets and land worth over £4 billion, which others say the church should sell in order to raise funds to support its creaking infrastructure.

However the church has recently found itself in hot water over the proposed sale of some of the housing that it owns.

Church Statistics, published in November, showed the significant financial contribution that volunteers are making to help maintain the nation’s parish churches.

Parishes across England spent more than £100 million on repairs to their church buildings in 2003 – but the cost of outstanding repairs could amount to nearly four times as much. The cost of repairs undertaken does not include the hundreds of thousands of hours' labour and other help given by volunteers who care for churches, or the cost of minor works and maintenance.

The same volume of statistics also shows that more than 1.7 million people attend church and cathedral worship each month in the Church of England, while 1.2 million attend each week and one million each Sunday. They show a small but significant rise of one per cent in each of these measures of church attendance.

The Revd Lynda Barley, Head of Research and Statistics for the Archbishops' Council, said:

"For the first time local churches and cathedrals have clear evidence of an increase in people attending church services. For every 50 people attending church on a typical Sunday, another 10 attend during the week."

Church Statistics 2003/4, is published by Church House Publishing priced £6.99, and is available from Church House Bookshop

Chancel Repair liability has become a major topic of discussion within the property profession over recent months.

The Aston Cantlow v Wallbank (2003) case highlighted the fact that this risk has a potentially huge impact on the title, value and marketability of a property (the Wallbanks have a £96,000 repair bill plus legal costs).

As an overriding interest, Chancel Repair liability is a “Conveyancing Trap” Conveyancers cannot rely on standard searches, analysis of title documents or standard enquiries as there is rarely any reference to this liability made in the title documents. It does, however, affect 35% of all parishes across every county in England and Wales and “liable land” can be located anywhere within a risk parish (not just near the church). The “Conveyancing Trap” is both widespread and will impact on a large number of unwary practitioners.

The Church regards this source of funding as crucial and has become pro-active in protecting its interest through registration at HMLR (it has until 2013 to guarantee that registration can take place.) The CML has made it clear it regards this risk as an issue of concern, that identifying this potential risk is the responsibility of the conveyancer in the first instance and that where there is potential risk it should be insured.

So, once again, responsibility for identifying the potential risk of chancel repair liability and for indemnifying against it falls squarely on the shoulders of the conveyancer. But how do practitioners identify where there is potential risk? Resource, time and cost preclude a personal search of National Archive records in every transaction. A solicitor should generally not contact the Church as this puts the Church on notice, can increase the cost of or negate insurance and/or initiate registration, both of which could lead to a negligence claim.

Fortunately a company called Conveyancing Liability Solutions Ltd (“CLSL”) has recently launched ChancelCheck^®, an instant web based search that for only £6 plus VAT (£7.05) reports whether or not a property is located within the boundaries of an historical parish which has the right to charge for chancel repairs. This search identifies potential risk, as required by the CML, and screens out those not at risk so enabling conveyancers to avoid the “conveyancing trap”. Where a risk is identified, either a full Chancel Repair Search may be commissioned, or alternatively ChancelSure Insurance^® offers full value indemnity insurance (CML Handbook Part II compliant) solution for as little as £59-88 for £250,000 of indemnity cover.

For the first time conveyancers are able to carry out “all necessary and appropriate searches” in a time efficient and cost effective manner enabling all parties in the conveyancing process to be adequately protected.

The flip side to the launch of ChancelCheck^® is that there is no longer an argument for not being aware of potential risk. Conveyancers may well be deemed negligent if they have failed to screen for this risk and their clients are charged for chancel repairs or the liability is registered against their title in perpetuity.

When Gail Wallbank Inherited a farm belonging to her late father, she thought of it as a welcome retirement nest egg.

But now she and her husband Andrew face ruin over the £1.5 million.

They have been hit with a £500,000 bill because of an ancient law which makes owners of Glebe Farm responsible for upkeep of the local church.

With their welcome inheritance, the Wallbanks unwittingly took on the liability as "lay rectors" of the 12th century St John the Baptist church.

They had no idea that the medieval law - now known as the 1932 Chancel Repairs Act - applied to their property in the Warwickshire village of Aston Cantlow.

Mr Wallbank, 64, and his 57 year old wife first learned of the responsibility in 1990 when they say the church - which has a congregation of just 25 - asked them for £6,000 to repair the chancel.

Believing the law no longer existed they refused to pay, but by 1997 the figure had soared to over £95,000 and the couple launched a legal battle to contest the claim.

In 2000, the High Court found in favour of the church but a year after the Court of Appeal backed the couple.

Then in June last year, the Church of England went to the House of lords, which ruled that the medieval law still stood and ordered the Wallbanks, who lease the arable farm and live on a sheep farm 60 mules away in Carno, Powys, to pay up.

The church now claims the amount needed for repairs has more than doubled to £230,000.

In addition, the couple, who have seven children, estimate their legal costs will be at least £250,000.

The case is due to be heard in the High Court again in March because the parties can not agree on the repair bill.

"We have offered them £23,000 because we believe that is what it will cost for repairs to keep out the wind and rain, which is all we believe a lay rector should be responsible for," said Mr Wallbank yesterday.

"I don't know how they've reached their new figure of £230,000. It seems as if they are trying to think of as many things as possible while they have got us".

He continued: "We knew of an historic link to the church but we were unsure of the details and thought it had expired. My father-in-law thought it was a gentlemanly agreement rather than an enforceable one.

"We'd have happily made a voluntary contribution but a compulsory bill was unexpected.

"We were told it would initially be about £6000. Even if we'd paid it then, I don't think it would have solved the situation - the church would have just kept asking for more. We will have to sell Glebe Farm to pay the £500,000 but it is unsellable with this law attached."

The Reverend Mervyn Roberts, who is responsible for the Coventry diocese which includes the church, said: "The Wallbanks knew they had this sword hanging over them 14 years ago.

If they had settled at the start, the scale of the problem would have been much smaller."

John Martin, churchwarden at St John the Baptist, said: "The Church of England has asked us to pursue this matter because it is not just our parish but affects the Church as a whole".

About 5000 people and institutions are also lay rectors of the church of England. Like the Wallbanks, they are legally obliged to pay for repairs.

At the House of Lords, the Wallbanks argued that their obligation to pay was unenforceable because it contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Law Lords, however, ruled that such an argument did not apply in the case of a parochial church council because it was not a core public authority.

In making the ruling, one of the Law Lords, Lord Nicholls, said the case concerned "one of the more arcane and unsatisfactory areas of the law".

A couple who inherited a house with an ancient duty to repair the parish church are facing a ruinous £500,000 bill - and thousands more could be affected, reports Graham Norwood

Andrew and Gail Wallbank from Warwickshire are facing a bill of nearly £500,000 because of an ancient law that makes them responsible for the upkeep of their local church.

The Wallbanks own Glebe Farm, a six-bedroom house dating from the 14th century, with 170 acres of land on the edge of the village of Aston Cantlow. Gail's father bought the property in 1970 and the couple inherited it in the late 1980s. "We knew of a historic link to the church, but we were unsure of details and thought it had expired," says Andrew, 64, a farmer. "To our knowledge, the family didn't have any notification that it was enforceable when the property was bought 34 years ago."

The land was originally owned by a monastery. After the Reformation it passed into private ownership, with a caveat that whoever bought Glebe Farm automatically became a "lay rector" with financial responsibility for repairing the 13th-century chancel of St John the Baptist Church.

"The first we knew of the severity of the problem was in 1990, when we received a letter asking us to pay for work on the chancel. We were told it would initially be about £6,000. We'd have happily made a voluntary contribution, but a compulsory bill was unexpected," says Andrew.

By 1997, the repair bill had rocketed to more than £95,000. The couple contested the claim and went through a High Court hearing that found in favour of the church in 2000 and an appeal in 2001 that went in favour of the Wallbanks. Last year the Church of England took the case to the House of Lords, which ruled that the couple must pay up.

Ominously, the ruling said the church was entitled to reassess the work that had to be done. "I don't know how they've reached their new figure, but we're now told that it's £230,000," says Andrew. "The parochial church council seems to be seeking renovation of the building rather than simply repair of the chancel." He also has to pay the legal costs for a decade of court cases, which he says are likely to be at least £250,000.

The church is unrepentant. "The Wallbanks knew they had this sword hanging over them 14 years ago. If they had settled at the start, the scale of the problem would have been much smaller," says the Rev Mervyn Roberts, who has responsibility for the Coventry diocese of the Church of England, including the Aston Cantlow parish.

About 5,000 parishes throughout Britain have "lay rectors" living in houses that in centuries past were occupied by village clergy or linked in some other way to the local church. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, churches have until 2013 to nominate any houses they believe carry liability for repairs with the Land Registry. After that date, only registered claims can be enforced.

People who have inherited properties from their families or have lived in the buildings for many decades may be unaware of the potential problem. If you are interested in buying a property of this kind, you can commission a chancel repair search at the National Archives in Kew, London, for £135.

"The usual sources for conveyancing searches - local councils and Companies House - tend not to detail any liability for chancel repairs, so this separate search could save an unsuspecting purchaser tens of thousands of pounds," says John Davies of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which advises estate agents on the issue.

However, it is not 100% certain that even this specialist search will produce definitive proof, as modern Ordnance Survey maps used by the National Archives do not always tally with old tithe maps used by some churches to determine previous ownership of land.

If there is uncertainty over whether a property carries chancel repair responsibilities, estate agents recommend that buyers get one-off insurance cover that takes into account the size of the house, its historic link with the nearby church and the condition of the church.

A Church of England spokesman says the Lords decision has not been interpreted as a green light for churches to reassess repair bills and present them to lay rectors.

That is little consolation to the Wallbanks. Glebe Farm is now let to a tenant farmer and the couple have moved to a farm at Carno, in Powys. They want to meet the parochial church council to discuss how the bill can be paid.

"It's daunting," says Andrew. "The only way we could pay anything like that sum is by selling the house and land at Aston Cantlow. But of course that's impossible. No buyer in their right mind would touch it."

How to deal with tricky situations. This week: a sale falls through when buyers fear they will be hit with a bill for church repairs

This summer, after a long legal battle, the House of Lords ruled that Gail and Andrew Wallbank, farmers who had inherited Glebe Farm in Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, were liable to pay £95,000 towards repairs to their local church - overturning a previous judgment in the Court of Appeal that the demand was unfair and arbitrary, and contravened the Human Rights Act.

The Wallbanks had been caught by an ancient law that requires the owners of glebe land to pay for chancel repairs. It is enshrined in the 1932 Chancel Repairs Act but the practice pre-dates the Reformation.

In recent years, few individual homeowners have been asked for their share, and the House of Lords judgment has sent shock waves through village England. People living near a parish church now wonder if they are about to be handed a large bill for repairs, and for anyone trying to sell a house close to a church the ruling is a concern.

Lorna and Robert McCurrach encountered endless problems when they tried to sell their house in Essex this summer. "The worry over chancel repairs gave us sleepless nights," says Robert. "I am retired and we wanted to move to Devon. At one point we thought we wouldn't be able to sell the house at all."

The couple's home comprised a pair of mid-Victorian cottages that were not even very close to the church. They bought their home knowing there was a covenant covering chancel repairs, but were assured that it would never be invoked. "The estate agent told us there was a nearby village where almost every house had such a covenant, and no one had ever been asked for any money," says Robert.

"As a precaution we were able to take over the insurance policy that the vendors had arranged to indemnify themselves against any claim for chancel repairs. The premiums didn't amount to much because the insurance company never expected to have to pay out."

However, after the House of Lords judgment, the solicitors acting for the McCurrachs' buyers suddenly started to take the chancel repairs issue very seriously. The buyers' building society took fright and asked for a tenfold increase in the insurance cover. The sale nearly fell through.

"It was such a worry," says Robert. "We accepted an offer at the beginning of June. Because we were moving into rented accommodation we could have exchanged almost immediately, but it took us until the beginning of August to sort everything out."

In the end, the matter was resolved when the McCurrachs proved that any bill for chancel repairs would be relatively small because the church itself is quite modest. This brought the cost of the indemnity policy down to a reasonable level and the sale went ahead.

Derek Wellman, vice chairman of the Ecclesiastical Law Association and registrar of the diocese of Lincoln, says:

"In the Wallbank case the parish council had no option because English Heritage had turned them down for a grant on the grounds that there was another source of funds available for church repairs. In most cases, it is the church commissioners or an Oxbridge college which have this ancient liability, and most parish councils are reluctant to ask individual homeowners to contribute because it seems unfair and the church gets a bad press.

"The liability to pay for chancel repairs mainly affects rural communities, but it can apply in towns and cities, especially where ancient settlements now form part of larger urban conurbations. A liability for chancel repairs isn't always in the title deeds. Anyone buying a house near a church should have a specialist search done at the Records of Ascertainment at the Public Record Office in Kew. However, even this may not give a definitive answer because it is often difficult to reconcile a modern Ordnance Survey map with the old tithe maps.

"The Government has recognised that this ancient liability to pay for chancel repairs needs reform. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, parochial church councils have 10 years from October 13, 2003 to register any liability for repairs with the Land Registry. After that only those that are registered can be enforced, which will put an end to the current uncertainty. Until then, homeowners should be wary because that cherished view of their local parish church just might come with a price tag attached."

THE Archbishop of Canterbury called yesterday for an end to the "scandal" of the Church having to devote a sixth of its annual budget on maintaining its historic buildings on behalf of the nation.

Dr George Carey said the Church's ministry was being hampered by having to devote £120 million of its £750 million annual expenditure to keeping cathedrals and churches in good repair.

He said: "It is scandalous that we have to pay so much for buildings we have inherited on behalf of the nation. We are not able to serve as effectively because of it."

He said the country would have to come to the help of the Church, which had to be "freed of the burden of the nation's heritage".

The Archbishop said that he feared the time would come when dioceses would have to make choices between either maintaining their ministries or their buildings. But he hoped congregations would not simply "walk away" from churches that had become too costly to maintain.

He said: "The Church's problem is this: most of the buildings are Grade I- or Grade II-listed, and we have to buy the best quality buildings for repairs. It is local congregations who are bearing this crushing burden."

Dr Carey, who retires on Oct 31, revealed that he had approached successive governments about the burden on the Church, which he characterised as "penalising the past". He also said he had held private discussions with the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

"As a son of the manse, he is sympathetic," Dr Carey said, though he added that the Government viewed the matter of permanent changes to the VAT system as being one for Europe.

Dr Carey added: "So we have been in touch with the office there. But it's a very frustrating business dealing with Brussels actually . . . It's so attenuated."

Dr Carey said that he remained optimistic about the situation because the Government "realised the value of the Church to society". He said: "From a governmental point of view they don't think of this as a very significant sum of money. What is £100 million to the Government?"

The Archbishop spoke after a meeting of the Archbishops' Council, the Church's "cabinet". It has been widely criticised as secretive and a monument to Dr Carey's reputedly insatiable appetite for bureaucracy.

Yesterday the council tried to reverse such bad publicity by inviting journalists to witness its deliberations for the first time.

They heard a rosy account of vocations, training, finance and ministry in the Church. However, Dr Philip Giddings, an elected member of the House of Laity and a lecturer in politics at Reading University, went "off-message" to say that he thought the Church was still perceived as "middle aged, middle class and suburban/rural".

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, who is the foremost evangelical contender to succeed Dr Carey at Canterbury, said that the Church had to learn how to be "more welcoming".

This article was written after the Wallbank's won the Court of Appeal case. They did of course go on to lose the case at the House of Lords.

A MAN and wife who found themselves bound by medieval canon law to repair the chancel of a 13th century village church have escaped a bill of £95,000 thanks to the Human Rights Act.

Andrew and Gail Wallbank won their appeal yesterday against a High Court ruling that they should pay the cost of repairing the village church of St John the Baptist in Aston Cantlow, Warks. The ruling means that parochial church councils will no longer be able to extract "arbitrary" sums from local landowners.

Mr Wallbank, 60, and his 53-year-old wife acquired a farmhouse in the village in 1974. Glebe Farm was built on glebe land whose owners since 1743 have been "lay rectors" of the parish. As such, they were required to pay for chancel repairs.

In exchange for this burden, rectors were formerly entitled to receive tithes - the tenth of the product of the parishioners' labour - but these were abolished in 1936. The penalty for breach of the repairing obligation was formerly excommunication, backed up if necessary by committal by the High Court for contempt of the ecclesiastical court.

However, since 1932 a parochial church council has been entitled to sue reluctant lay rectors in the civil courts. In March last year, Mr and Mrs Wallbank were ordered to pay £95,260, the estimated cost of repairing the chancel at St John's. Once the Human Rights Act came into force last October, the couple appealed.

Yesterday the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Andrew Morritt, siting with Lord Justice Robert Walker and Lord Justice Sedley, held that the repair costs amounted to an arbitrary tax. This was because the Wallbanks's land "does not differ relevantly from any other freehold land, and secondly because the liability may arise at any time and be . . . in almost any amount".

As such, said the Court of Appeal, the taxation breached the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions - in this case, money. However, the Wallbanks will still have to pay their legal costs in the High Court because the case was correctly decided last year on the law as it then stood.

Mr Wallbank said that would leave him £20,000 out of pocket. He added: "But on balance I'm very, very pleased that I have won. That's a much smaller figure than I feared we might have been in for. Had we lost, the consequences would have been many times that figure."

Mr Wallbank, who married in the church, added that when he was first approached about the repairs 11 years ago he did not know much about canon law. I felt totally amazed when we found ourselves in this predicament - that something as antiquated as this could rise up and bite you.

"We knew that there was a connection between the farm and the chancel but believed it was purely a gentlemen's agreement. It's only relatively recently that the church council found out that it was legally binding."

A FARMER who faces a potential £100,000 bill for repairs to a medieval village church under the requirements of an ancient religious statute has been thrown a lifeline by English Heritage, which is considering his ap