Charities Act 1992

15 Application of property cy-prehs

(1) Section 14 of the 1960 Act (application cy-prehs of gifts of donors unknown or disclaiming) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1)—

(a) for “after such advertisements and inquiries as are reasonable, cannot” there shall be substituted “after—

(i) the prescribed advertisements and inquiries have been published and made, and

(ii) the prescribed period beginning with the publication of those advertisements has expired,

cannot”; and

(b) for “written disclaimer” there shall be inserted “disclaimer in the prescribed form”.

(3) After subsection (1) there shall be inserted—

“(1A) Where the prescribed advertisements and inquiries have been published and made by or on behalf of trustees with respect to any such property, the trustees shall not be liable to any person in respect of the property if no claim by him to be interested in it is received by them before the expiry of the period mentioned in subsection (1)(a)(ii) above.”

(4) In subsection (4)(b), for “twelve” there shall be substituted “six”.

(5) After subsection (4) there shall be inserted—

“(4A) Where—

(a) any sum is, in accordance with any such directions, set aside for meeting any such claims, but

(b) the aggregate amount of any such claims actually made exceeds the relevant amount,

then, if the Commissioners so direct, each of the donors in question shall be entitled only to such proportion of the relevant amount as the amount of his claim bears to the aggregate amount referred to in paragraph (b) above; and for this purpose “the relevant amount” means the amount of the sum so set aside after deduction of any expenses properly incurred by the charity trustees in connection with claims relating to the donors' gifts.”

(6) After subsection (5) there shall be inserted—

“(5A) In this section “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Commissioners; and such regulations may, as respects the advertisements which are to be published for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) above, make provision as to the form and content of such advertisements as well as the manner in which they are to be published.

(5B) Any regulations made by the Commissioners under this section shall be published by the Commissioners in such manner as they think fit.”