Law of Property (Amendment) Act 1924

Charitable and public trusts.

16 The following section shall be substituted for section twenty-six of the principal Act:—

“26 (1) For the purposes of this section, all land vested or to be vested in trustees on or for charitable, ecclesiastical, or public trusts or purposes shall be deemed to be settled land, and the trustees shall, without constituting them statutory owners, in reference to the land, have all the powers which are by the Settled Land Acts conferred on a tenant for life and on the trustees of the settlement.

In connexion only with the exercise of those powers, and not so as to impose any obligation in respect of or to affect—

(a) the mode of creation or the administration of such trusts; or

(b) the appointment or number of trustees of such trusts;

the statute or other instrument creating the trust or under which it is administered shall be deemed the settlement, and the trustees shall be deemed the trustees of the settlement, and, save where the trust is created by a will coming into operation after the commencement of this Act, a separate instrument shall not be deemed necessary for giving effect to the settlement.

Any conveyance of land held on charitable trusts shall state that the land is held on such trusts, and where a purchaser has notice that the land is held on charitable, ecclesiastical or public trusts, he shall be bound to see that any such consents or orders requisite for authorising the transaction have been obtained.

(2) The said powers shall be exercisable subject to such consents or orders (if any) being obtained as would, if this Act had not been passed, have been requisite if the transaction were being effected under an express power conferred by the instrument creating the trust; and, where the land is vested in the official trustee of charity lands or in any other persons having no powers of management, the said powers shall be exercisable by the managing trustees or committee of management, and the official trustee or other persons aforesaid shall not be liable for giving effect to directions given by the managing trustees or committee of management:

Provided that where—

(a) a disposition or dealing is to be effected for a nominal price or rent, or for less than the best price or rent that can be reasonably obtained or gratuitously; or

(b) any interest in land is to be acquired ;

the like consent or order (if any) shall be required in reference to the disposition, dealing or acquisition, as would have been requisite if the intended transaction were a sale.

(3) Nothing in this section shall affect the jurisdiction of the court, Charity Commissioners, Board of Education, or other competent authority, in regard to the administration of charitable, ecclesiastical, or public trusts.

(4) Every assurance of land or of personal estate, within the meaning of section four of the Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act, 1888, or if the charitable uses are declared by a separate instrument, then that instrument shall, in place of the requirements respecting attestation and enrolment prescribed by subsections (6) and (9) of that section, be sent to the offices of the Charity Commissioners within six months after the execution thereof or within such extended period as the said Commissioners may, either before or after the expiration of the six months, in any particular case allow, for the purpose of being recorded in the books of the said Commissioners.

Where the original cannot be produced, an attested or office copy may be sent instead of the original.

This subsection does not apply to registered dispositions of registered land, or to assurances or instruments required by section one hundred and seventeen of the Education Act, 1921, to be sent to the Board of Education, and only applies to instruments executed after the commencement of this Act.

(5) Where any trustees or the majority of any set of trustees have power to transfer or create any legal estate, the same shall be transferred or created by them in the names and on behalf of the persons (including the official trustee of charity lands) in whom the legal estate is vested.

(6) This section applies (save as otherwise provided) whether the trust was or is created before or after the commencement of this Act, but does not apply to land to which the Universities and College Estates Acts, 1858 to 1898 (as amended) apply.”