Do you know about Charities Act Valuations?

December 23, 2013

W T Gunson have acted for churches and charities such as British Red Cross, Creative Support and Imagine Act & Succeed, offering advice in property related matters. In particular, we have carried out disposals for Charities along with valuations to comply with Section 119 of the Charities Act 2011.

Under this act, when disposing of a property, charity trustees must ‘obtain and consider a written report from a Chartered Surveyor’ acting exclusively for the charity, before entering into an agreement for sale. This should provide a valuation of the asset, together with expert advice on how to achieve its best price.

Charities must also advertise the proposed disposition in line with the surveyor’s recommendations. The surveyor may recommend that it would not be in the charity’s best interests to advertise the disposition.

Before completing the disposal, the charity trustees must decide that they are satisfied, having considered the surveyors report, that the terms on which the sale is completing are the best that can be reasonably achieved in the circumstances.

There are certain expectations where the requirements from the Charities Act regulated charities are less demanding, for example when a lease is granted for seven years or less, without a premium, no formal charities act report is required; however the advice of a suitably competent person must be considered.

Our close knit valuation and agency departments can offer expert and considered advice when disposing or acquiring all types of property. We can offer strategic advice to charities and churches for various property disposals in accordance with Section 119 of the Charities Act 2011. In summary the services we can provide to charitable organisations are:

· Valuations, complying with Section 119 of the 2011 Charities Act.

· Acquisition & Disposition

· Sales of all types of commercial property

· Schedules of Dilapidation.

· Schedules of Condition.

For more information regarding any of our above services, please contact Mark Grayshon[email protected] at the office.