These sites can be beneficially used in the ‘Meanwhile’ for short-term ‘Pop-Ups’ in between refurbishment stages, redevelopment phases, awaiting planning, commercial letting or sale. There are benefits for owners, charities and the local communities they serve.

Meanwhile Pop-Up Use

• Any usable building in England
• Viewings are unhindered, with sites clear in between events
• Regular occupation 2 to 30 days at a time, with site condition reporting
• Meanwhile Aid Logistics shares the space with partner Pop-Up charities
• Relief aid Pop-Up charity has a 30-year track record, no dilapidations since 1995
• Extra service available to clean, tidy, dispose of waste and remove graffiti
• £5m public liability insurance, not a single claim
• HM Government’s tried & tested Meanwhile Use lease
• 7-year lease to minimise administration for the maximum period (no repeats needed)
• No need to register under section 4(1)(c) of the Land Registration Act 2002
• Outside the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 with a Statutory Declaration
• Easy-In, Easy-Out, 1 month minimum, 30 days’ notice thereafter
• One working day turnaround for Leases and Stat Decs
• Charity pays for utilities used pro-rata, not Services Charges, BIDs or Insurance
• Digital divide Pop-Up charity has a 2016 High Court legal precedent
• IRRV Members can look up Forum – Technical Queries 2024 – FTQ17107
• Legal adviser Jenny Wigley KC, Joint Head of Landmark Chambers

Meanwhile Property Ltd

We are charity tenant managers, arranging all the practical aspects, liaising with landlords and overseeing venues for charity Pop-Up events in every area of England. This includes two national Pop-Up charities, one carrying out IT Appeals for computer donations and the other providing logistics for relief aid, as well as many other charities. We have 30 years’ experience, managed hundreds of sites for rating surveyors, portfolio managers, developers, property companies and blue-chip tenants, with not a single dilapidations issue.

Property protection – safe charity tenants for 30 years

Protect your property with regular visits and light occasional insured use; our charities are trained to care for your site. One of our charities has a 100% clean, no damage or dilapidations, track record since 1995, and another since 2006. Charities have a minimum £5m public liability insurance. We can also clean, tidy, dispose of waste and remove graffiti.

Viewings are unhindered

Charity Pop-Up events, short-term aid storage or aid distributions, are occasional, lasting a few days or a few weeks at a time, leaving the site free and clear in between occupations. Property marketing and prospective buyer or tenant viewings are unhindered, with only occasional occupations buildings are kept safe and clean, with no mess or litter.

Lease

There is no need for repeated licences with our 7-year HM Government’s ‘Meanwhile Use’ lease, with termination on 30 days’ notice. This has been 100% successful. It is tried and tested, through many firms of solicitors and Billing Authorities and is easier to administer. If you would like a background history on the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Meanwhile Use initiative, please let us know.

Charity ‘wholly or mainly’ use

Charitable relief requires wholly or mainly charitable use of the premises, a minimum of 50% of the floorspace must be demonstrably occupied and used exclusively for charitable purposes, on a long-term lease, usually requiring on-site activity and visitors. One of our charities has a High Court precedent and numerous Legal Opinions, all positive and definitive, advised by Jenny Wigley KC, Joint Head of Landmark Chambers.

Our process

On receipt of property details, we let you know if the site is suitable for our charities within a working day, with our fees based on RV, Subject to Survey & Contract. The charity accepts a lease and informs the Billing Authority (BA) it is the ratepayer. Clients have no non-domestic rating liability, as the debt travels with the charity ratepayer and is not fixed on the property; there is no recourse to the owner, nor any residual liability.

Tenancy at Will, Licence or Lease?

While we are willing to take sites on a Tenancy at Will or a Licence, we understand that only a Lease securely transfers the rating liability, because the ratepayer is the one with legal possession and paramount control. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Meanwhile Use lease has taken many years, numerous solicitors and a lot of experience to develop and evolve; if this is used, we are willing to exchange and complete on our own behalf, and your behalf if you wish, without using solicitors.

Paramount control

For safety’s sake our charities should have unfettered and priority control over access to the hereditament concerned, ideally holding a master set of keys or managing other security. This is to legally establish our charity conclusively as the ratepayer, and not the landlord (Southern Railways case). The charity only guarantees to remove the liability if given paramount control, otherwise the landlord could be held as the ratepayer and liable. 

Contract

All of the above is included in our Framework Agreement with you, available on request.

Charity IT Appeals

One of our Pop-Up charities carries out IT Appeals, requesting donations of IT equipment from local council, organisations and residents, offering free Datawiping with Certificates, CO2 Emission Reduction Certificates, re-use in the community or environmentally friendly disposal. We also support Repair Cafes and Re-Start projects where possible.

A marketing campaign reaches out via local media, incorporating an exhibition of charity work and also giving-away laptops to small local voluntary organisations. They also try and get the BA to publish the IT Appeal on their events web page and their ideal is for the BA to donate their own devices, with the local Mayor donating to charities on-site.

Experience has found that if there is an endless charity appeal, people feel bombarded by too many charity appeals and are less likely to donate their surplus IT equipment. If the next appeal is some time ahead, people are not willing to wait that long if they have surplus IT equipment to dispose of; it blocks up their storage area and as a result they dispose of it elsewhere. Where needed, we collect, store, aggregate and then ship out van loads of IT equipment, sometimes taking several weeks or months of build-up.

It has been also found that there has to be sufficient duration to receive local resident’s and organisations’ stockpiled IT equipment by offering free datawiping, for the public to view the charity exhibition and to give-away laptops to small local charities. So these charity IT Appeals are spaced out and of variable duration, on a location-by-location basis.

Relief aid ‘Meanwhile Use’

This is primarily for receiving, storing, sorting and transhipping of large-scale donations of goods and supplies to foodbanks, as well as appeals and aid collections to amass bulk shipments to Ukraine and to other charities. This can be for 2 to 30 days at a time.

Provenance

Our relief aid Pop-Up charity, which started in 1994, has a 100% clean, no damage or dilapidations track record since 1995 when using Stirling House, Sunderland Quay, Culpeper Close, Rochester, Kent ME2 4HN. It used the space to collect, store, sort and send aid and emergency supplies to Bosnia, just as today is done for Ukraine. During the pandemic it distributed chest freezers to foodbanks, new toys to families in poverty at Christmas and Lush cosmetics to hospital A&E doctors and nurses, as well as hospices.

The IT charity has been using empty premises since 2006, having worked with Aberdeen Standard, Aviva, B&Q, Currys, Dunelm, Halfords, Hammerson, Henderson, Land Securities, La Salle, Legal & General, London Metric, Sainsburys, Stockland, Topland, Travis Perkins and many others. This is a genuine charity, founded by Bill Gates, starting out as an internal project within Microsoft, partnering with ACER, the Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors, LandAid, Business in the Community, Techies Go Green and many others.

How is the IT charity funded?

It was initially supported by Microsoft from 2004, until it became independent in 2010. The charity funds give-aways by selling some of the IT equipment it receives on its charity eShop.

Each device given a second life through refurbishment means a new one does not have to be manufactured; every refurbished laptop saving the planet from 150kg of CO2 emissions. The charity gives unemployed young people, those on the autistic spectrum, and with Special Educational Needs, work experience, training and jobs, as well as donate devices to local charities and schools free-of-charge at charity IT events in vacant sites.

In order to fund the refurbishment and upgrade of equipment, the IT charity runs a charity e-Shop with a “Buy One, Give One Free” policy. Each item bought enables them to do give-aways free-of-charge to other charities. Charity supporters can buy a range of device specifications and add-ons, which are all refurbished and help enable the charity to be as self-sustainable as possible.