Commentary on provisions of Act Section 8: Power to direct property to be applied to another charity
Section 8 amends section 85 of the Charities Act 2011 so that the Commission may make an order to apply charity property where the person holding the property is "unable" to apply it properly (at present, a person must be "unwilling"). It also amends section 85 of the Charities Act 2011 so that compliance with the order does not result in a breach of contractual obligations to the charity (e.g. banks who act on client instruction). The Commission asked for this provision following several cases where financial institutions holding charity property were contractually unable to transfer it to secure its proper charitable application but would have been willing to do so.