Increasingly, charities need to take professional advice before entering into property transactions. This was highlighted by a recent case: Bayoumi -v- Women's Total Abstinence Education Union Ltd and Perkins.

The Charities Act 1993 requires that before selling land, a charity must take advice on marketing, comply with it, consider all offers received, and accept the best offer available. In Bayoumi, the trustees of a charity exchanged contracts for the sale of premises without going through any of these steps (as they were not aware of the need to do so), although the contract itself contained a statement that all statutory requirements had been complied with.

The purchaser then assigned the benefit of the contract (i.e. the right to complete the purchase) to a third party. When the third party failed to complete, the charity sought a court order to compel him to do so. Sadly for the charity, the court decided that the contract was void, leaving the charity in the position of having incurred significant costs, both in relation to the attempted sale and in relation to the litigation it had undertaken.

The moral of this story is that it will pay any charity to ensure that its legal advisers recognise that charities are different from other organisations, in that there is a separate and independent body of law with which they must comply, and which will affect nearly every transaction that they undertake. Failing to take account of this, can have dire consequences for the charity itself and, often, for its trustees.

Our commercial property team offers property-owning charities of all sizes a comprehensive service, advising (in conjunction, where appropriate, with members of our charity law team) on areas ranging from general property issues to disputes. Our experience allows us to provide thorough, sound and -- above all -- accurate and up-to-date advice on property transactions and disputes, tailored to each charity's needs. We ensure that, at all times, the end product complies with all aspects of charity law.

We act for several of the region's major land-owning charities, assisting them with all property management issues, ranging from acquisitions and sales, assignments, lease terminations and renewals, through to possession actions, rent and dilapidations disputes, or boundary, right of way and nuisance actions.
Our work covers the following areas:

Commercial

• Commercial and residential acquisitions and disposals
• Lease renewals
• Rent reviews.

Disputes

• Landlord and tenant disputes, including dilapidations, breaches of covenants and rent and service charge arrears
• Nuisance, trespass boundary, restrictive covenants and easements disputes