Reverter of Sites Act 1987

[unitarian]

Is anyone willing to let me pick their brains about this?

I believe it is being cited to prevent the closure and sell off of libraries if the land was donated under the terms of the Scientific Institutions Act of 1854.

If you haven't already got them, here are the web links to the two Acts you referred to :-

Reverter of Sites Act 1987 :- www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/15/contents

Library and Scientific Institutions Act 1854 :- www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/17-18/112/contents

I suspect very large legal minds are involved in such a challenge, as a cost of many thousands of pounds.

Unlikely to find someone offering advice about that here I 'spect

Thank you wasthatthatguy

I'm having difficulty getting my head round the Acts though.

It was because of the library closure protests that I came across this legislation but it's actually the School Sites Act of 1841 that I think might be useful to us.

A benefactor donated land in 1906 for the council to build a school. The school was built and closed in 1950. Since then it has been used for educational purposes but now lies empty and we villagers want to use it as a village hall but the council looks likely to sell it.

The original deed transferring the land doesn't have a reverter clause in it but it is stated that the land was for a school.

What we want to know is, will the heirs of the benefactor have a claim on the profit of the sale of the land? If so, the council might decide it's not worth selling which is the outcome we hope for as we want to lease the building. The heirs are traceable.

It's one of those very obscure areas which your average jobbing lawyer just isn't going to know the answer to. I read your OP earlier and just went PFFFT. You know what I mean.

You may have to get counsel's opinion.

If you are in Scotland the answer is that Section 86 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003, means the right of reversion has been converted into a right of compensation exercisable against the Local Authority. Sorry no idea if elsewhere

mumblechum1 It was a long-shot, I know, but I'm always amazed what knowledge is available here and I figured that if anti-library closure people are onto it there was a chance of finding someone who knows the ins and outs of it.

Another thing that puzzles me, though, is that the Reverter of Sites Act seems a very strange piece of legislation for a Thatcher government to have introduced. It seems to oppose selling off the family silver.

The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act seems to be in the same spirit as the 1987 Act in England.

Doing a search on www.bailii.org/form/search_cases.html using "School Sites Act" and "Reverter of Sites Act" brings up the judgements in the link below, in various parts of which the judges may say things relevant to the situation you are considering. Depending on what you discover, you could do further searches for other relevant judgements, where judges say what the words in the various sections of the relevant Acts mean in practice :- www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/sino_search_1.cgi?sort=rank&datehigh=&query="School%20Sites%20Act"%20and%20"Reverter%20of%20Sites%20Act"&method=boolean&highlight=1&datelow=&mask_path=/eu/cases%20/ew/cases%20/ie/cases%20/nie/cases%20/scot/cases%20/uk/cases

Thanks!

If you're thinking of using your own research to start a court action beware. If you get it wrong (quite likely with a technical area of law) you'll have to pay the other side's costs, which are likely to be tens of thousands.

Yes, that's too big a risk. We wouldn't stand to gain anyway. If the heir of the benefactor stand to gain then he can take court action!

What we hope to gain is for the council to decide it is not worth selling the building and look for another body which would like to lease it - the villagers. It has been leased to a national organisation for years but now it wants out.