A charity under investigation has surrendered its leases on over 600 properties following a fall out with an investor.
Big Help protested over housing conditions and withheld payments on properties that it had rented from Home REIT to house homeless people and prison leavers.
Home REIT published a statement saying that it has reached an agreement with Big Help for the surrender of its leases on over 600 properties.
This equates to around 30% of the company’s portfolio, and the lease surrenders completed on 28 May.
Its statement from the property investor says that it ensured “there is a comprehensive handover with minimal disruption to occupiers”.
The properties are occupied by a mixture of private rented sector and social tenants placed by local authorities on licences.
Tenancies will now transfer to the property firm, enabling it to directly collect the underlying income from these properties.
Home REIT said it will be appointing various property managers to the surrendered properties, who will be responsible for the day-to-day management and rent collection.
The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Big Help in December after it reported a sharp increase in income.
A spokesperson for the regulator said as it has an ongoing inquiry into the charity it cannot comment further on this.
‘We were victims in this scandal’
A Big Help spokesman told the MailOnline: “Big Help has always been clear that we were victims in this scandal; we are delighted that after robustly defending our position for over 18 months we have been completely vindicated.
“Home Reit is now accepting the return of these leases – that were handed over to us in a substantially different state of repair than our contracts had agreed, with significant shortfalls for maintenance budgets for each home.
“We have ensured that our tenants have been fully supported throughout this challenging period and we can confirm their tenancies have been assured as part of this agreement.
“We can further confirm this agreement has been completed at no cost to our organisation.”
The charity has yet to respond to a request for comment from Civil Society.
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