Choosing your legal form

Choosing the 'legal form' of your Community Land Trust

If you are going to own assets, run a bank account, sign contracts etc then you need to create an organisation that runs your CLT.

The choice of incorporation (the setting up of a legally- recognised organisation that is run by, but seperate from, its members) should depend on what you want to do.

There is usually no ideal choice and so compromises have to be made.

A good example of this is where a charity can allow tax breaks but it also restricts what the people running the charity can do.

There is a simplified decision tree the Project has created that will help with the choice but it should be worked through with someone with practical as well as legal understanding. Working in the CLT sector has made us aware of straightforward decisions that have ultimately caused unintended consequences for groups.