Charity buying equity in Property

mummyfrugal

Well Im absolutely dumfounded and wound up so much....

We tried to buy a property and have found out that a lady has put in an offer (same as ours) and had it accepted - nothing wrong with that.....

but...

she already owns at least two other properties that we know of and in order for her to buy this one, apparently a charity is buying some of the equity.

I know that charities do buy equity in properties for their workers but for heavens sake if they already own other properties shouldnt they sell them first????? I thought it was for people in need!

Sorry gripe over, but does anyone have any experience of this? surely their is a clause about owning other properties? with all this cutbacks Im absolutely disgusted that this is going on! the temptation not to interfere is really getting hard to resist.....

Running_Horse

What is the charity?

Sounds like a misuse of donations, but then I've long suspected that the charitable employment sector is just an extension of wasteful public sector gravy train thinking.

poppysarah

Get a journo onto it to investigate. Sounds dodgy to me.

mummyfrugal

sorry running hourse, the source of my info didnt know..... its probably a good thing cos id be letting everyone know which charity it was (mis-use of funds really aggrivates me).

PasturesNew

Is it for her to live in? Maybe the charity is, say, to house ex-offenders when they come out of prison and she's buying a BTL to house them.

00ec25

aside from the intelligent comment made by pasturesnew, then well run charities do not live a hand to mouth existence surving on donations only, they also have investment portfolios in their own names to provide income on top of what you or I give them in donations.

Despite what you may think about the housing market currently, a charity's balanced portfolio will include properties, which will generate rental income not just capital growth

so
a) either they bought it because they use it for their own charitable purposes; or
b) it's an investment

can't see why the OP is aggrieved, all that happened is they lost out to someone whose position appeared to be better to the vendor

mummyfrugal

In reply to above, we are in 'better position' as we can buy it faster for the same price but thats not the point im making.

The reason I am 'aggrieved' is that if she already has her own 'PORTFOLIO OF PROPERTIES' why should she get equity paid by a charity?

I am sure anyone who donates to charities would prefer that monies for equity are only for those employees who are unable to buy properties in their area to carry out the charity work.

Otherwise its not a charity - its just a support for property investors. One of her houses is about 20 mins away by car, so im guessing its just adding to her portfolio.

Nice to know what really happens to all those donations people make.

mummyfrugal

Can I just add, that I am not against charities having equity in homes for their employees or for carrying out charitable work. Or even to rent it out to their employees/voluntary workers. I think that most charities have invested well and supported their staff at the same time to live in areas where they would not be able to live and in properties that are fit for use for the charitable work.

However.....

I just feel in this case that as the person has other houses (one of them within 20 mins of where this one is), that it is just a way to acquire an additional property to a portfolio, which I personally feel is a mis-use of charitable monies.

Surely they should keep such funds for investment for their employees/staff who do not have properties and NEED somewhere to live????

PasturesNew

I must admit to being thoroughly confused as to what's actually going on here. This talk of equity's the bit that's losing me. We don't know the terms/reasons it was bought, so hard to either agree or disagree or question.

While some aspects don't seem fair, full details would be needed to participate in this discussion.

Bobmcdingleberry

Uhhhhhhhhhh no.

princeofpounds

If you know what charity it is, look up their accounts and charter. If it seems that the purchase doesn't match their charitable purpose and has dodgy investment rationale then think about reporting them to the Charities Commission.

I'm sure there are plenty of charities where 'investments' are just treated as slush funds.