This is a full report on the Court of Appeal decision that ruled that the liability for chancel repairs offends against human rights.

The court overruled the High Court and held that the owners of former rectorial glebe land subject to common law chancel repair liabilities, could not have the liability enforced against them.

A parochial church council is a public authority and, as such, cannot act in a way that is incompatible with Convention rights.

The liability to pay for chancel repairs amounts to a tax on land and is contrary to Article 1 of the First Protocol unless it can be justified and is both appropriate and proportionate. The liability could be justified as the maintenance of historical buildings can be in the public interest, but the court held that the means were arbitrary and neither appropriate nor proportionate.

The imposition of the liability also offended against Article 14 of the Convention because it was discrimination against a class of owners of freehold land that had formerly been rectorial glebe land as compared with a class of owners of freehold land that had not formerly been rectorial glebe land.

This item links to practice notes on the Human Rights Act 1998.