Social Housing
(Transfer) (Jersey) Law 2013
A LAW to transfer the States of
Jersey housing stock and other assets to a company and related purposes.
Adopted by the
States 17th July 2013
Sanctioned by
Order of Her Majesty in Council 9th October 2013
Registered by the
Royal Court 18th
October 2013
THE STATES, subject to the sanction of Her Most Excellent Majesty in Council, have
adopted the following Law –
1 Interpretation
In this Law –
“assets” means any
interest in immovable property or movable property of any description, and
includes capital, securities, choses in action and documents;
“liabilities” means
any liabilities, debts or obligations (whether present or future and whether
vested or contingent);
“representative body”
includes a trade union and any other association of employees formed for the
purpose of representing those employees in their relationship with their
employers;
“rights” means any
rights, powers, privileges or immunities (whether present or future and whether
vested or contingent);
“transfer date”
means the day prescribed by Regulations under Article 3;
“company” means the company
prescribed under Article 2;
“transferor” means
the States or a person acting on behalf of the States.
2 Nature
of company
(1) The
States may by Regulations prescribe a company to which such assets, rights and
liabilities of the States or of the public as are referred to in Article 4
shall be transferred.
(2) The
prescribed company must be a private company, incorporated under the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991[1], that is limited by guarantee and whose
sole guarantor member is the States.
(3) Subject
to paragraphs (5) and (6), the Minister for Treasury and Resources may
exercise the powers of the States in their capacity as sole guarantor member
and, in exercising those powers, shall act in the interest of the States.
(4) The
Minister for Treasury and Resources may from time to time nominate one or more
persons to act on behalf of the States, in their capacity as sole guarantor
member, on such terms and in such manner as the States direct.
(5) The
power to vote on a resolution to wind up the company may only be exercised by
the States.
(6) The
States may prescribe in Regulations any other power that may only be exercised,
in relation to the company, by the States.
3 Transfer
date
(1) The
States shall by Regulations prescribe the transfer date or dates for the
purposes of the provisions of this Law.
(2) The
date prescribed under this Article shall not be a day earlier than the day on
which the Regulations prescribing the day come into force.
4 Transfer
of assets rights and liabilities
(1) On
the transfer date, the assets, rights and liabilities of the States or of the
public that are specified in Regulations shall be transferred to the company in
accordance with those Regulations.
(2) Such
a transfer may be made on such terms and conditions as are prescribed by the Regulations
and may (as prescribed in the Regulations) consist of the transfer of a
liability, or transfer of an interest in an asset or right, that is less than
the entire liability, or entire interest in the asset or right, of the States
or of the public.
(3) If
it appears to the States expedient so to do for the purpose of removing any
difficulties or uncertainties arising out of the operation of this Article,
they may, by Regulations, direct that such assets, rights, or liabilities, of
the States as may be specified in the Regulations –
(a) are
not transferred under this Article or shall be taken not to have been so
transferred; or
(b) are
transferred under this Article or shall be taken to have been so transferred.
(4) The
States may, by Regulations, prescribe any asset, right or liability not subject
to transfer, and an asset, right or liability that is so prescribed is not
transferred under this Article, but this does not prevent its transfer
otherwise than under this Article.
5 Vesting
in company
(1) When
any assets, rights or liabilities are transferred under this Law or in Regulations
made under this Law, the following provisions have effect –
(a) except
to the extent provided in Article 6(3), the assets of the transferor vest
in the company by virtue of this Article and without the need for any further
conveyance, transfer, assignment or assurance;
(b) the
rights or liabilities of the transferor become by virtue of this Article the
rights or liabilities of the company;
(c) all
proceedings relating to the assets, rights or liabilities commenced before the
transfer by or against the transferor or a predecessor of the transferor and
pending immediately before the transfer are taken to be proceedings pending by
or against the company;
(d) any
act, matter or thing done or omitted to be done in relation to the assets,
rights or liabilities before the transfer by, to or in respect of the
transferor or a predecessor of the transferor is (to the extent to which that
act, matter or thing has any force or effect) taken to have been done or
omitted by, to or in respect of the company;
(e) a
reference in any enactment, in any instrument made under any enactment or in
any document of any kind to the transferor or a predecessor of the transferor
is (to the extent to which it relates to those assets, rights or liabilities)
taken to include a reference to the company.
(2) The
operation of this Article or of Article 4 or 6 (or of any Regulations made
under any of those Articles) is not to be regarded –
(a) as
a breach of contract or confidence or otherwise as a civil wrong;
(b) as
a breach of any contractual provision prohibiting, restricting or regulating
the assignment or transfer of assets, rights or liabilities;
(c) as
giving rise to any remedy by a party to an instrument, or as causing or
permitting the termination of any instrument, obligation or relationship,
because of a change in the beneficial or legal ownership of any asset, right or
liability; or
(d) as
an event of default under any contract or other instrument.
(3) No
compensation is payable to any person or body in connection with a transfer to
which Article 4 or 6 applies except to the extent (if any) to which the Regulations
made under that Article so provide.
6 Evidence,
registration and treatment of transfer
(1) The
production of a copy of any Regulations made under Article 4 and signed by
the Greffier of the States shall, for all purposes, be conclusive evidence of
the transfer to and vesting in, the company of any assets, rights or
liabilities to which those Regulations apply.
(2) Nothing
in paragraph (1) affects the value of any other evidence of a transfer
that may be adduced.
(3) Regulations
made under Article 4 that specify any interest in immovable property
situated in Jersey and are signed by the Greffier of the States shall be
registered in the Public Registry of Contracts and that registration shall have
the like effect as a contract passed before the Royal Court and the title to
any interest in such immovable property specified in those Regulations shall
vest in, belong to and be held by the company on and after the day of that
registration.
(4) The
States may, by Regulations, make provision with respect to the values to be
assigned in accounts to the assets, rights and liabilities of the States, and
the treatment of any transfer of them under this Law.
(5) The
States may, by Regulations, make provision for the purposes of the values to be
assigned to the assets, rights and liabilities of the States, and the treatment
of any transfer of them under this Law, as far as they are relevant to any
matter under the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991[2].
7 Stamp
duty
Stamp duty is not chargeable for or in respect of –
(a) a
transfer that is effected under this Law or, if otherwise effected, that is
prescribed for the purposes of this Article by Regulations made by the States;
or
(b) anything
prescribed by Regulations made by the States as something done in consequence
of such a transfer.
8 Transfer
of staff
(1) Subject
to paragraph (3) an employee of the States whose ordinary and normal place
of work immediately before the transfer date is the Housing Department of the
States of Jersey shall, on the transfer date, be transferred to the company and
on and from that date –
(a) the
person shall be an employee of the company;
(b) the
person’s contract of employment with the States shall have effect as if
it had originally been made between the person and the company at the date when
it was actually made;
(c) all
rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with the contract
of employment shall be enforceable or exercisable as if the contract had been
originally made between the employee and the company;
(d) any
collective agreement made by the States (or otherwise on behalf of the States)
with a representative body recognized by or on behalf of the States, being an
agreement that has effect in respect of the employee immediately before the
transfer, shall continue to have effect in respect of the employee as if it had
been originally made by or on behalf of the company with that representative
body;
(e) any
collective agreement made by or on behalf of the States with a representative
body recognized by or on behalf of the States, being an agreement that is
expressed to have effect in respect of the employment of persons by the company
who were not immediately before the transfer date employees of the States shall
have effect from the transfer date as if it had been originally made by or on
behalf of the company with that representative body; and
(f) anything
done before the transfer date by or in relation to the States (or otherwise on
behalf of the States) under or in respect of the contract of employment or the
agreement or in respect of the employee shall be taken to have been done by or
in relation to the company at the time when it was actually done.
(2) A
reference in paragraph (1)(c) to a liability includes any liability that
relates to –
(a) the
employment of a person by the States at any time before the person becomes an
employee of the company by virtue of this Law; and
(b) the
person’s membership of a scheme under the Public Employees (Retirement) (Jersey) Law 1967[3].
(3) No
employee may be transferred to the company until the company has been admitted
to the scheme referred to in Regulation 9 of the Public Employees
(Contributory Retirement Scheme) (General) (Jersey) Regulations 1989[4] and paid to the pension fund
of that scheme such amount as the Actuary
determines as being reasonably attributable to the company in respect of the
capitalized value from time to time of the debt transferred to the scheme when
the scheme was amended with effect from 1st January 1988.
9 Saving
of rights under retirement schemes
If a person was,
immediately before becoming an employee of the company by virtue of this Law, a
member of any scheme made under the Public
Employees (Retirement) (Jersey) Law 1967[5] then, on so becoming such an employee –
(a) except to the extent provided in sub-paragraph (b),
the terms of the person’s membership of the scheme, and the rights and
liabilities under that scheme, are unaffected by the person becoming such an
employee; and
(b) notwithstanding anything in that Law or any
other enactment or in any other document or under any arrangement, the company
shall, by the operation of this Article, become the person’s employer for
the purposes of the scheme made under the Public Employees (Retirement)
(Jersey) Law 1967[6].
10 Amendment of
medium term financial plan approved under Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005
Despite Article 9(2) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005[7], the Council of Ministers
may lodge a proposition for a purpose described in Article 9(1) of that
Law, in consequence of –
(a) the
transfers effected by the coming into force of this Law, or of Regulations made
under this Law; or
(b) an
increase in the rents payable by tenants of social housing pursuant to a
decision of the States to adopt P.33/2013.
11 Regulations
Regulations under this Law may contain such transitional,
consequential, incidental, ancillary or supplementary provisions as appear to
the States to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the Regulations.
12 Citation
and commencement
This Law may be cited as the Social Housing (Transfer) (Jersey) Law 2013
and shall come into force on such day or days as the States may by Act appoint.
m.n. de la haye
Greffier of the States