TATOC Consumer Helpline: Charity Commission decision
Published 22 October 2014
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This case was considered in Decision Review, following our formal rejection of the application on the basis that we were not satisfied that the TATOC Consumer Helpline (“the Helpline”) was charitable.
The Helpline was formerly operated by the TATOC Consumer Association (“the Association”), a consumer association for timeshare owners, “run by timeshare owners for timeshare owners”, which we had declined to register as a charity on the basis that it was not exclusively charitable. However, we advised that the Association’s Helpline had the potential to be charitable. A separate organisation was set up to run the Helpline and an application submitted to register it as a charity.
The Helpline’s objects did not declare wholly charitable purposes, and we had concerns that it had not been set up to target specific charitable purposes. However, we acknowledged that some of the purposes did have the potential to be charitable. We formally rejected the Helpline’s application. The Helpline’s objects were amended and the applicant sought a review of our decision to not register the Helpline in view of the amended objects and some additional information provided.
Following a review of the information provided with the application, additional subsequent information provided by the applicant and amendments to the organisation’s objects, we have concluded that the Helpline is established for exclusively charitable purposes within the descriptions of purposes in section 3(1) of the Charities Act 2011 and for the public benefit. It is therefore entitled to be registered on the register of charities under section 29 of the Charities Act 2011.
The commission has now entered the TATOC Consumer Helpline on the register of charities.