Charity deal rescued

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 00:00

We have been very happy to help a charity client whose corporate trustee had agreed to sell surplus property.

As leaseholder of an adjoining building held for different purposes, the trustee needed a right of way. We were called in as charity experts because of the obvious conflict of interest. Then the trustee registered a notice protecting an alleged right, which nearly scuppered the sale. But we got it to exercise a previously unnoticed break clause in the lease rather than be subject to a claim for breach of trust, and the sale went ahead. This was the second time we had been asked to advise on a conflict situation involving the same trustee and it just shows the importance of properly managing any potential conflict.