We are part of the “Meanwhile Use” movement, an HM Government supported initiative to encourage the social use of vacant commercial buildings for community benefit. This puts us in a different category to Box Shifting, Bluetooth, fake charity, Wi-Fi, religious or Snail Farm schemes which exploit loopholes that HM Government wants to close.
Learn More at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/meanwhile-use-leases-and-guidance-notes
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.
Empty Rates Reduction
Pop-Up Property Offer Details
50% – 70% immediate, easy, flexible, safe, inclusive and continual rates saving
Rateable Value Rates saving %
£0 – £100k 50%
£100 – £250k 55%
£250 – £500k 60%
£500 – £1m 65%
£1m+ 70%
Example RV £50,000 pa x 49.9p UBR = £24,950 pa rates payable
50% rates saving = £12,475 pa / 12 = £1,039.58 instant monthly rates saving
Example RV £375,000 pa x 55.5p UBR = £208,125 pa rates payable
60% rates saving = £124,875 pa / 12 = £10,406.25 instant monthly rates saving
Lease to Meanwhile Aid Logistics for charity 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
Pop-Up Property Limited
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.
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.
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.
Together We Help
- Foodbanks
- Young carers
- Homeless youth
- Hospice patients
- Ukraine relief aid
- Charity volunteers
- Women’s refuges
- Unemployed veterans
- Schools in the UK and Africa
This is safe, better and easier than the alternative, and doing genuine good.
If you have any vacant sites, please will you allow us the opportunity to make you an offer?
(all Subject to Survey, Quotation and Contract) – valid as at 25 March 2025