Conversion of a housing association to a charity

Converted Franklands Village Housing Association to an exempt charity and subsequently complete its merger with a local charity

Franklands Village Housing Association is a community benefit society and therefore could not register with the Charity Commission. Nonetheless it wished to obtain charity status. In January 2013 we obtained confirmation from HM Revenue & Customs that they accepted Franklands as a charity for tax purposes. This was the culmination of a detailed process of:

• preparing new Rules and objects suitable for a charitable housing association
• obtaining the consent of the Homes and Communities Agency
• registering the new Rules with the (then) Financial Services Authority
• submitting the application to HM Revenue & Customs.

We then provided Board training on their responsibilities as charity trustees under the new Rules.

Consequent upon obtaining charitable status, Franklands then merged with an existing charity which owned adjoining land for recreational facilities. This required requesting a Scheme from the Charity Commission to the Hardy Memorial Field Trust appointing Franklands as its corporate trustee. The land was functional permanent endowment and therefore could not be transferred into the direct ownership of Franklands.

We:

• applied to the Charity Commission for a Scheme
• requested inclusion in the Scheme of provisions which transferred the legal title of the land to the new trustee
• updated the governing document of the Hardy Memorial Field Trust to the extent issues were not dealt with by the Charity Commission Scheme.