Section 53 — Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988: Powers of persons subject to property orders

53 Powers of persons subject to property orders (1) Subject to section 36(2) of this Act, a person subject to a property order shall be incapable of exercising personally any of the powers vested in the manager in respect of any property to which the manager's powers extend. (2) Every transfer, lease, mortgage, or other disposition of property, and every contract (except for necessaries), made or entered into by a person subject to a property order who, by virtue of subsection (1) of this section does not have the capacity to make or enter into it shall, unless it is made or entered into with the leave of a Court, be avoidable by that person or by the manager acting for that person. (3) A Court may give leave to any person subject to a property order to make any such transfer, lease, mortgage, or other disposition, or to enter into any such contract, if the Court is satisfied that the transaction is for the person's benefit and that the person consents to it with adequate understanding of its nature. (4) A manager shall not be entitled to avoid any transaction under subsection (2) of this section in any case where an application in writing has been made to the manager by any party to the transaction requiring the manager to decide whether or not to avoid the transaction, and the manager has, for a period of 28 days after the receipt of the application or such extended period as may be allowed by a Court, failed to give to that party notice whether the manager is avoiding the transaction or not. (5) If the manager, after any such application, does not, within the period or extended period referred to in subsection (4) of this section, avoid the transaction, the manager shall be deemed to have continued it. (6) Subject to subsection (8) of this section, if any transaction is avoided under subsection (2) of this section, a Court, on the application of any party to the transaction or of the manager, may make such orders as it thinks just for the purpose of adjusting the rights of the parties and of any other person who has received any property or money comprised in the transaction (not being a person who has received the property or money from a party in good faith and for valuable consideration or who claims through such a person). (7) Without limiting the generality of subsection (6) of this section, on an application under that subsection, a Court may make an order for the restitution or transfer or payment by or to the person subject to a property order or the manager or any other person of any property or money, in whole or in part, or of any sum representing the value, in whole or in part, of any such property. (8) Relief under subsections (6) and (7) of this section may be denied wholly or in part if the person from whom relief is sought received the property or money in good faith and has so altered his or her position in reliance on having received an indefeasible interest in it that, in the Court's opinion, it would be inequitable to grant relief, or to grant relief in full, as the case may be. (9) For the purposes of subsection (2) of this section, the question whether goods or services are necessaries is a question of fact.