Where a church is considering granting rights or interests over property which is held in trusteeship by the Baptist Union Corporation (BUC) or another Baptist Trust Corporation, the church charity trustees might be asked to sign a document in the name of the BUC or its other property trustee.  In all such cases, churches should consult their property trustee before signing. The BUC says that church charity trustees should please be aware that they are not authorised to sign any documents in the name of or on behalf of the BUC.
 

The Renters Rights Bill, which will do away with assured shorthold tenancies, is proceeding though Parliament. When it is in force, a landlord will no longer be able to recover its property by using a ‘no fault’ eviction notice. This will affect churches in England renting out residential property to tenants. The Bill currently provides for a right to recover possession in cases where a dwelling-house is held for the purpose of being available for occupation by a minister of religion as a residence from which to perform the duties of his/her office and the court is satisfied that the dwelling-house is required for that purpose.  We will be monitoring the progress of the Bill and have issued guidance for churches. Please see our Guidelines Leaflet PM04: Letting a Manse in England.
 

The Government has published the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill aimed at reducing the risk to the public from terrorist attacks at public venues. (This is commonly known as Martyn’s Law). The Bill is passing through the legislative process, but, in its current form, states that premises used for communal worship or other communal religious practice will be ‘standard duty premises’. The standard duty includes a duty, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure that appropriate evacuation and other procedures are in place in case of an actual or imminent terrorist attack. Some smaller premises (where it is not reasonable to expect that from time to time 200 or more individuals may be present at the same time in connection with the communal worship or religious practice) may even be exempt. We will be monitoring the progress of the Bill and issuing further guidance for churches in due course.

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