The root of this astonishing and unusual ruling was when, three years ago, the Church of England successfully managed to reactivate a medieval law. The law states that the ownership of a piece of farmland renders one couple personally responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of repairs to the local church chancel.
In addition to the 15 years worth of legal costs the Wallbanks will have to pay, the grand total they owe stands at around £500,000. They are back in the High Court on February 5th to find out exactly how much they will have to pay out.
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This case however will set a precedent for the Church of England to seek out other similar cases whereby people whose houses, patios or gardens have been built on old church land will have to pay unrestricted costs for building repairs to their local church.
If the C of E does indeed intend to track down homeowners who have parts of their estate on rectorial land some of which dates back as far as medieval times then this could lead to landowners in roughly 5,000 parishes having to foot the bill of their local churchs building repairs, whatever these may be.
It is not only private homeowners which this ruling will affect though, as the church land is also part of communal and council owned space such as hospitals, schools, housing estates, factories, offices and sports grounds.
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