As we see Councils buying back ex council homes to add to rental stock the next sell off will be in public land or buildings
Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 commenced today and has the potential to impact on anyone transacting with a public body.
Part 5 of the Act provides a statutory right for community bodies to make an asset transfer request to any of a number of public authorities. Such requests allow community bodies to seek ownership or lease of land or buildings for which they believe better use can be made, or else request rights to manage, occupy or make use of such land for specific purposes.
Under s 84(2) of the Act, when a community body makes a transfer request to an authority, the authority “must not sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the land to which the request relates to any person other than the community body”. Further, s 84(11) declares that when an authority is prevented from disposing of land as a consequence of subsection (2), any contract under which the authority is obliged to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the land to a person other than the community body is void.
This prohibition on disposal does not apply if the land has already been advertised for sale or lease, or if the authority entered into negotiations or began the process to transfer the land to another person prior to the asset transfer request being made. Such prohibition may be lifted by direction from Scottish Ministers if sufficient justification is provided as to why the prohibition should be removed.
We note – and would emphasise – that the Act does not provide for community body requests to be registered in a public register. However, each public authority is required to publish (on a website or by other electronic means) any community body requests that it has received.