Home buyers are being forced to take out home insurance to avoid falling foul of medieval laws that mean they have to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for church repairs.
More than 2,500 lawyers are calling for the scrapping of “chancel repair liability”, which they say is spawning a £20 million industry for insurance companies and increasing conveyancing costs for house buyers.
The Law Society, the solicitors’ professional body, which has started an on-line petition signed by thousands of solicitors, says that historic tax on church repairs is unfair.
It accuses insurance companies of profiteering by pushing home buyers into paying for inappropriate insurance to protect them from having to pay for repairs.
Paul Marsh, deputy vice-president of the Law Society, said: “The reality is that chancel repair liability applies to only a tiny fraction of properties.”
(Aston Cantlow, Times Online -19 December 2006)
No comments:
Post a Comment