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Charities exist to serve public benefit. They are regulated by the Charity Commission and their trustees shoulder personal responsibilities that go well beyond what directors of ordinary companies face. When disputes break out within charities, a trustee falling out with trustee, beneficiaries challenging decisions, or questions about where the money’s gone, the legal and reputational consequences can be severe.
Tower Bridge Legal advises trustees, beneficiaries, donors, and charitable organisations on disputes arising from governance and administration of charities across England and Wales.
Charity law draws on the Charities Act 2011, common law principles developed over centuries, and the regulatory framework the Commission operates.
Disputes may turn on fiduciary duties, proper interpretation of charitable objects, validity of trustee decisions, or the Commission’s powers to step in and sort things out. We provide advice that acknowledges both the legal complexity and the reputational sensitivity that comes with disputes in the charitable sector.
Trustee Disputes and Governance Conflicts
Charity trustees owe duties to act in the charity’s best interests, exercise reasonable care and skill, and steer clear of conflicts of interest. When trustees disagree about direction, spending priorities, or who should be running things, those disagreements can escalate into formal disputes requiring external resolution.
Tower Bridge Legal represents individual trustees facing removal, boards dealing with members who refuse to follow agreed procedures, and charities that need to address governance failures before regulators get involved.
How you remove a trustee depends on what type of charity you’re dealing with. Charitable incorporated organisations work differently from charitable companies, which work differently from unincorporated associations. Removal powers might sit with members, with fellow trustees, or might require an application to the Charity Commission or court. We advise on interpreting governing documents, following the right procedures, and establishing legitimate grounds for removal where those exist.
Challenges to Trustee Decisions
Beneficiaries, members, and other interested parties sometimes want to challenge decisions trustees have made. Maybe the trustees acted outside their powers, or pursued some improper purpose, or failed to consider factors they should have weighed up.
Tower Bridge Legal advises on whether proposed challenges have merit and the procedures for bringing them, such as Charity Commission complaints, court applications for directions, or litigation to set aside the decision altogether.
Courts supervise charities but they’re generally reluctant to second-guess trustees acting within their powers. Successful challenges usually require showing trustees strayed outside their authority, breached fiduciary duties, or reached decisions no reasonable trustee could have made.
We give honest assessments of what’s achievable and pursue challenges that have genuine prospects whilst steering clients away from litigation that’s unlikely to succeed.
Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Trustees who breach their duties may find themselves personally liable for losses the charity suffers. Breaches take many forms, including undisclosed conflicts of interest, spending funds on non-charitable activities, imprudent investments, or simply neglecting to act in accordance with the charity’s purposes.
Tower Bridge Legal represents charities pursuing former trustees who have caused loss, and trustees defending allegations that they’ve fallen short.
Remedies against defaulting trustees include personal liability for losses, accounting for profits where trustees lined their own pockets, and injunctions stopping ongoing breaches.
Trustees can be let off the hook if they acted honestly and reasonably and the court thinks they ought fairly to be excused, but that relief doesn’t come automatically. It requires careful presentation of the trustee’s position. We handle claims and defences from initial correspondence through to High Court trials.
Disputes Over Charitable Funds
Donors sometimes attach conditions to their gifts. Historic endowments may come with restrictions that made sense decades ago but serve no useful purpose now. Disputes arise about whether funds have been applied properly, whether restrictions can be loosened, and what happens when charitable purposes become impossible to fulfil.
Tower Bridge Legal advises donors whose wishes haven’t been honoured, charities seeking clarity on how funds should be held, and personal representatives dealing with estates that include disputed charitable bequests.
The cy-près doctrine allows charitable funds to be redirected to purposes as close as possible to the original intention where literal compliance has become impossible or impractical.
Applications for cy-près schemes go to the Charity Commission or, for more complicated situations, to the court. We help charities prepare cy-près applications, oppose schemes that would divert funds inappropriately, and represent donors and their families in disputes about how restricted gifts should be used.
Charity Commission and Tribunal Proceedings
The Charity Commission wields significant regulatory powers. It can open inquiries, suspend trustees, remove them altogether, and direct how charitable property should be dealt with. When the Commission moves against a charity or its trustees, those affected have rights to make representations and often to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Charity).
Tower Bridge Legal represents trustees and charities responding to Commission inquiries, making representations against proposed action, and appealing decisions that go against them.
The Tribunal also handles appeals on registration decisions, removal from the register, and scheme-making. We advise on appeal grounds, prepare documentation, and appear at Tribunal hearings.
Where possible, we engage with the Commission early to resolve concerns without formal regulatory proceedings or the need for appeals.
Sensitive and Confidential Handling
Charity disputes attract attention in ways commercial litigation doesn’t. A charity’s reputation, built up over years, can take serious damage from governance disputes that spill into public view.
Tower Bridge Legal approaches these matters with appropriate sensitivity, exploring confidential resolution through mediation or negotiation where feasible and managing communications carefully where matters can’t be kept under wraps.
Our civil litigation team handles charity disputes for clients across Birmingham and throughout England and Wales. Whether you’re a trustee facing breach allegations, a charity dealing with internal governance problems, or a beneficiary concerned about how funds are being administered, contact Tower Bridge Legal for practical advice from solicitors who understand how the charitable sector works.
