There is a tithe rentcharge on the title — is it still payable?

The title shows a tithe rentcharge

Almost certainly nothing will ever come of it, and that is not the same as nothing. A tithe rentcharge is a survival of the obligation to support the parish church, converted into a money payment in the nineteenth century and largely dismantled since. Sellers routinely say it has never been demanded and decline to pay for insurance on that basis — which is a judgement about likelihood, not about consequence.

From the e-ROT archive

This scenario is drawn from Report on Title material dealing with this specific circumstance.

Lexsure Report on Title paragraph: Tithe Rent Charge · See the wording

What it is doing on a modern title

Tithes were a payment in kind to support the parish, converted into money rentcharges in the nineteenth century and then progressively extinguished through the twentieth. What survives on titles today is usually a reference rather than a live obligation, and in many cases nobody has collected anything for generations.

It is also genuinely different from an estate rentcharge: there is no service being provided and no estate being maintained. It is a historical residue.

Why the seller will not insure it

The usual reason given is age: nothing has been demanded in living memory, so the seller sees no risk worth paying to cover. That reasoning is reasonable as far as it goes.

What it leaves out is that the statutory remedies attaching to rentcharges do not scale with the likelihood of enforcement, and that a chargeable obligation on a title is a thing a future buyer's solicitor will raise whether or not it has ever been demanded.

So the sensible response is usually to take the policy anyway. The Lexsure wording below calls it a belt and braces approach, which is fair — and the braces are cheap.

The questions worth asking

Whether the amount is known. A rentcharge whose sum cannot be established cannot be redeemed through the statutory route, which closes off the cleanest way of being rid of it.

Whether there has been any contact with anyone claiming to own it. If there has, indemnity cover will not be available — the same rule that applies to every other indemnity policy in conveyancing.

Whether the title refers to apportionment, which can mean the obligation recorded against this property is for more land than this property.

Tithe Rent Charge

Archive Lexsure e-ROTScope Seller declines indemnityWord count 76Published November 2017

The property is subject to a Tithe Rent Charge in the sum of [ ] and the sellers have confirmed that they have not received any demand for payment and in view of its age will not providing indemnity insurance.

If you require a "belt and braces" approach then you can take out such indemnity insurance policy at your expense. If you wish to do so please let me know and I will provide a quotation.

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