Education Reform Act 1988

Third parties affected by vesting provisions E+W

9 (1) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs 6 to 8 above, any transaction effected between a transferor and a transferee in pursuance of paragraph 2(1) or of a direction under paragraph 3 above shall be binding on all other persons, and notwithstanding that it would, apart from this sub-paragraph, have required the consent or concurrence of any person other than the transferor and the transferee.

(2) If as a result of any such transaction any person’s rights or liabilities become enforceable as to part by or against the transferor and as to part by or against the transferee, the Education Assets Board shall give that person written notification of that fact.

(3) If in consequence of a transfer to which this Schedule applies or of anything done in pursuance of the provisions of this Schedule—

(a) the rights or liabilities of any person other than the transferor or the transferee which were enforceable against or by the transferor become enforceable as to part against or by the transferor and as to part against or by the transferee; and

(b) the value of any property or interest of that person is thereby diminished;

such compensation as may be just shall be paid to that person by the transferor, the transferee or both.

(4) Any dispute as to whether and if so how much compensation is payable under sub-paragraph (3) above, or as to the person to whom it shall be paid, shall be referred to and determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Lord Chancellor.

(5) Where the transferor or the transferee under a transfer to which this Schedule applies purports by any conveyance or transfer to transfer to some person other than the transferor or the transferee for consideration any land or other property which before the transfer date belonged to the transferor, or which is an interest in property which before that date belonged to the transferor, the conveyance or transfer shall be as effective as if both the transferor and the transferee had been parties to it and had thereby conveyed or transferred all their interest in the property conveyed or transferred.

(6) A court shall have the power set out in sub-paragraph (7) below if at any stage in proceedings before it to which the transferor or transferee under a transfer to which this Schedule applies and a person other than the transferor or the transferee are parties it appears to it that the issues in the proceedings—

(a) depend on the identification or definition of any of the property, rights or liabilities transferred which the transferor and the Education Assets Board have not yet effected; or

(b) raise a question of construction on the relevant provisions of this Act which would not arise if the transferor and the transferee constituted a single person.

(7) In any such case the court may, if it thinks fit on the application of a party to the proceedings other than the transferor or the transferee, hear and determine the proceedings on the footing that such one of the transferor and the transferee as is a party to the proceedings represents and is answerable for the other of them, and that the transferor and the transferee constitute a single person.

(8) Any judgment or order given by a court in proceedings determined on that footing shall bind both the transferor and the transferee accordingly.

(9) It shall be the duty of the transferor and of the Education Assets Board to keep one another informed of any case where the transferor or the transferee under a transfer to which this Schedule applies may be prejudiced by sub-paragraph (5) above or any judgment or order given by virtue of sub-paragraph (8) above.

(10) If either the transferor or the transferee claims that he has been so prejudiced and that the other of them ought to indemnify or make a payment to him on that account and has unreasonably failed to meet that claim, he may refer the matter to the Secretary of State for determination by the Secretary of State.