Charity land

Charity land

In many cases the most valuable asset that a charity has is land. They may own it for the purposes of a trading base or an income source or they may rent it for the purposes of a retail presence. Whatever the reason there are relatively strict rules as to its acquisition and disposal.

Buying land for a charity

If a charity is proposing to buy property, there are a number of issues that the charity trustees must consider. In particular, the charity must have the power to buy land, whether that land is functional premises, administrative or trading premises or investment property.

Ordinarily, the charity’s governing document will contain an express power for it to buy property. However, an express power is often limited to the acquisition of functional property only and any sort of ‘sweep-up’ provision in the governing document should not be relied on as conferring power to buy other types of property. However, where there is no express power to buy a particular class of property, the charity trustees of an unincorporated charity can amend the governing document to include such a power.

A statutory

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