99. Chancel repair liability.

Liability to repair the chancel of a parish church of the Church of England may exist where the parish has a vicar (not a rector) and the church dates from the mediaeval period or earlier. Where liability does exist it is unlimited in amount and binds the land owner irrespective of notice1. It is extremely difficult to ascertain whether land is affected by such liability and the simplest approach is to make a search either through an electronic search provider or commercial provider to discover whether the land being purchased lies within a parish which could potentially be affected