Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969

9 Termination of sharing

(1) A sharing agreement shall contain provisions for terminating the sharing of the church building or buildings, and such provisions may—

(a) if the agreement relates to two or more buildings, provide for terminating the sharing of any building before the others; and

(b) if there are two or more sharing Churches, provide for the withdrawal of any Church from the sharing of any church building, not being a Church which is the sole owner or previous owner of the building;

and the sharing agreement may make provision for financial adjustments as between the Churches, on such termination or withdrawal, by payments out of moneys held for the purposes of the sharing agreement or of any shared building or by other payments by one Church to another.

(2) On the termination of the sharing of a church building owned by one only of the sharing Churches, the building shall be held on the trusts or for the purposes on or for which it was held before the sharing agreement or would be held but for the sharing agreement.

(3) On the termination of the sharing of a church building jointly owned by all or some of the sharing Churches, being a building which before the sharing agreement was owned by one only of those Churches, the building shall, without any conveyance or other assurance, vest as follows:—

(a) if the building was previously a consecrated church of the Church of England or a building (other than a consecrated church) vested in the incumbent of a Church of England parish, it shall vest in the incumbent of the parish in which the building is then situated, for the same purposes as before, as nearly as may be;

(b) in any other case, it shall vest in such of the trustees in whom the building is vested as represent the Church who previously owned the building or, if the building is vested in a custodian trustee, it shall remain so vested but be managed by such of the managing trustees as represent that Church, and it shall be held and managed on the trusts or for the same purposes as before, as nearly as may be.

(4) Where the sharing of a church building jointly owned as aforesaid but not previously owned by one only of the sharing Churches is terminated, the sharing agreement and the trust instrument may provide for the disposal of the building (including disposal to one of the sharing Churches) and for the application of the proceeds to charitable purposes of the sharing Churches.