Today marks the start of a new regime for chancel repair, with properties sold now being free of any liability for repairs to medieval and earlier church chancels unless the right has been registered by the relevant PCC.
It will still be possible for churches to register the liability on a property, but only if it has not been sold after midnight on Saturday night.
It will not be possible for Chancel Repair Liability to be enforceable on any land sold after that date, unless the liability has been registered before its sale.
Legal advice from the Church of England warned PCC members that they could be personally liable if they failed to protect the church assets by registering the liability.
The Land Registry estimates that 89 PCCs have lodged 601 applications to register CRL against registered land, and 95 cautions against first registration of unregistered land.
