An important update regarding the Anjuman's purchase of the Car Wash Land
Posted By Management Committee
Assalamalaikum W.W.
As you are aware Anjuman-E-Isha’at-E-Islam / Masjid-Al-Farouq had come to an agreement to purchase the land adjacent to Masjid Al Farouq at 115-119 Wednesbury Road for a price of £625,000, which required an initial deposit of £250,000. Alhumdullilah, since starting our fundraising campaign during Ramadan 1444 / April 2023, we have raised over £330,000.
On behalf of Anjuman-E-Isha’at-E-Islam / Masjid Al Farouq, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your trust, support, and generous donations during our fundraising campaign for the Anjuman Expansion project, may Allah SWT reward you all for your efforts and intentions.
Alhumdulillah with your support we had sufficient funds to pay the agreed deposit of £250,000, in July. Since then, we have been waiting for the legal process to conclude to submit our deposit. The reason why it has taken so long is because the due diligence conducted by our solicitors highlighted some legal issues and restrictions on the title deed. The main issue was that there were two restrictions which prevented the registration of our ownership with the Land Registry, unless and until the restrictions were removed. One of the companies whose consent was required to remove the restriction no longer exists. This resulted in both our solicitors and the seller’s solicitors agreeing that contracts could not be exchanged until this matter was resolved.
Our solicitors strongly recommend that we do not submit the deposit until these legal issues are resolved. The risk here is the loss of our deposit, or if we completed the transaction, our ownership of the land could not be registered or could only be registered after a lengthy delay. If during this time the current owners disappeared as an entity, we would suffer significant financial loss and may not be able to recover the purchase price paid.
For the past few weeks, the sellers, without the knowledge of their agents or their solicitors, have negotiated a sale to another party at a higher price. This is despite on numerous occasions over the past year, the Anjuman being assured that we were the only party that they were going to sell the land to. For the past few weeks, the Anjuman has been attempting to have a meeting with the sellers to resolve the legal issues. The sellers made themselves unavailable for these meetings.
The third party, we are told, is prepared to take the risks outlined above. As the purchaser is not a charity it does not need to carry out the due diligence or consider the risk which we have had to balance as a registered charitable organisation. We are told that the third party has paid a non-refundable deposit of £250,000.
Unfortunately, it is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that we will no longer be proceeding with the purchase of the land. Whether we were able to purchase the land or not, it is clear the need still exists to develop a hub to:
The committee will now be exploring how we can achieve the above needs through investing in our existing infrastructure. Possible ideas to consider are to develop on the current masjid car park or on the 113 Wednesbury Road Car Park.
RETURN OF DONATIONS
The Anjuman will plan for the return of all donations made for the purchase of the land. Those who kindly donated specifically for the purchase of the land should contact us by either emailing the masjid on land@masjidalfarouq.org.uk or call into the Masjid Office after Isha salat on weekdays.
Those donations received via bank transfer or through enthuse (online payment platform), will be repaid through bank transfer.
Our preferred method of repayments for cash donations is bank transfers, however we understand some people will prefer a repayment in cash, if this is the case, please advise us accordingly.
As donors will appreciate, we will need specific information to validate donations before we are able to proceed with the return of money donated. We therefore respectfully request for your patience and ask that you bear with us through this process.
Information that we will require but not limited to is: -
On a case-by-case basis, we may need further information and if this is the case we will request this accordingly.
Please note: all donations which are not claimed will be ‘ring fenced’ and only used for future Anjuman expansion projects which we are currently exploring.
We would like to once again take this opportunity to offer our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your support and request your forgiveness for any shortcomings from our side, all good that has come out of this is from Allah and all shortcomings are ours.
Jazakallah khairun