Community right to bid

The provisions give communities a right to identify a building or other land that they believe to be of importance to their community’s social wellbeing. The aim is that, if the asset comes up for sale, then they will be given a fair chance to make a bid to buy it on the open market. The scheme only applies when the asset is being put up for sale and there is no requirement for the owner of the asset to sell it. It is not a community right to buy the asset, just to bid.

We must add details of any community interest group that wishes to be treated as a potential buyer of an asset to its list of assets of community value within 6 weeks of receiving the request. We must remove the entry if an appeal against the listing is successful.

Once an asset is included on the register, nothing further will happen unless and until the owner decides to dispose of the asset. This is either through a freehold sale, the grant, or assignment of a lease, granted for at least 25 years.

Listing of a property as a Community Asset is a Local Land Charge. A non-compliant disposal of property is ineffective and void from the outset. The effect of this will be that the ownership of the land has not changed hands.

Unless the proposed disposal falls within an exemption, for example -

• transfer made by gift
• transfer within a family
• transfer due to inheritance
• transfer where the listed community asset forms part of a larger estate

the owner will only be able to dispose of the asset once the following steps have been completed -

• in an interim period of 6 weeks community interest groups will have the opportunity to express a written intention to bid. If no group expresses a written intention to bid in this period, the owner is free to sell their asset
• if a community interest group does express an intention to bid during this interim period, then a 6 month moratorium applies during which they can prepare a bid. At the end of the 6 month moratorium, the asset owner retains all their usual rights to dispose of their asset as they wish. No further opportunity to bid is available to community interest groups for a protected period of 18 months
• where a community group wishes to purchase a community asset and is able to pay the price determined by the owner, the owner will have the option of disposing of the community asset to that group. They do not need to wait until the end of the moratorium to do so