Charity land

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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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Latest Private Client News

Private Client weekly highlights—22 January 2026

This week’s edition of Private Client highlights includes: (1) Parr v Cheshire East Council, in which the Court of Protection (CoP) set out guidance on when the criteria for appointing a Personal Welfare Deputy are met; (2) Riddle v NA, in which the CoP clarified the test for determining costs applications; (3) the Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation is updated with guidance on using Artificial Intelligence in tax work; and (4) analysis of R(on the application of Peter Kadas) v HMRC, in which the High Court dismissed a judicial review claim against HMRC’s decision to provide the claimant’s information to the Spanish tax authority.

Question of the week: If there is a gift of a property to three beneficiaries in a Will and between the three beneficiaries they agree that one of the beneficiaries will ‘buy out’ the other beneficiaries, who should be responsible for the costs associated with the transaction?

This Q&A considers, if there is a gift of a property to three beneficiaries in a Will and between the three beneficiaries, they agree that one of the beneficiaries will ‘buy out’ the other beneficiaries, who should be responsible for the costs associated with the transaction.

High Court dismisses judicial review claim against HMRC’s decision to provide claimant’s information to the Spanish tax authority (R(on the application of Peter Kadas) v HMRC)

Tax analysis: In R (on the application of Peter Kadas), the High Court granted the claimant permission to pursue a judicial review against HMRC’s decision to share his financial information with the Spanish tax authority (the AEAT) but rejected the claim on its merits.

Court of Protection—when is the criteria for appointing a Personal Welfare Deputy met (Parr v Cheshire East Council & another)

Private Client analysis: This application came before the court as a reconsideration of Mrs Parr’s application to be appointed as her daughter’s personal welfare deputy. The case is a real world example of how the court considered and applied the principles established in Re Lawson, Mottram and Hopton as to the circumstances in which the appointment of a personal welfare deputy would be in a protected party’s best interests. The court also considered an application by ITV News for variation of the Transparency Order in order to identify the parties. Written by Laura Twist, barrister at St John’s Buildings.

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