Chancel repair liability is the liability of an owner of land to pay for repairs to the chancel of a parish church. Owners affected include individual homeowners as well as ecclesiastical organisations, universities, colleges and others. Land does not have to be near a church building in order to be liable.
Certain overriding interests, including chancel repair liability, ceased to be overriding at midnight on 13 October 2013. These overriding interests are:
· a franchise
· a manorial right
· a right to rent that was reserved to the Crown on the granting of any freehold estate (whether or not the right is still vested in the Crown)
· a non-statutory right in respect of an embankment or sea or river wall
· a right to payment in lieu of tithe
· a right in respect of the repair of a church chancel (chancel repair liability)
· Chancel repair liability can be protected by entering a notice on the register (in the case of registered land), or by a registering a caution against first registration (in the case of unregistered land).
However, if chancel repair liability was not protected by notice or caution at 13 October 2013, this does not mean it ceases to exist
