A north London arts charity which has invested £140,000 in its rented property is seeking legal action against its landlord charity after being evicted in favour of new tenants.

Community Focus, which runs art courses for over 1,500 local adults including those with learning, physical disabilities or mental health issues, has been located in Barnet's artsdepot since 2005. The charity says it has engaged lawyers after being issued a three-month eviction notice for exit before 5 June.

Private company London Studio Centre (LSC) will take over the space after having been located elsewhere in the artsdepot for a number of months. Artsdepot says that the new partnership with LSC is "crucial to artsdepot's survival". The charity received £115,800 from the Cabinet Office Transition Fund in 2011 but lost all its core funding from the London Borough of Barnet that same year and needs to raise £1.4m every year to deliver its services, according to its chief executive Tracy Cooper.

She said: "The two original tenants were Barnet College and Community Focus. London Borough of Barnet removed all of artsdepot’s core funding in 2011 and Barnet College moved to alternative premises in 2012. Both of these factors left artsdepot with a massive funding deficit which amounted to 35 per cent of artsdepot’s turnover and almost led to the venue’s closure." 

As a charity itself, artsdepot pays a nominal rent of £1 per year to the London Borough of Barnet, while charging £34,000 in rent per annum from Community Focus, which says it pays an additional £16,000 in service charges annually.

Community Focus director Tim Balogun (pictured) advised that the charities had previously been in dispute when artsdepot sought to almost double the rent paid by Community Focus to £62,000, which the latter charity was able to avoid.

He said that over the years Community Focus has invested £140,000 in the building on flooring, roofing and fixtures including a recently completed multi-media suite for digital arts training. The charity's clients have a deep interest in remaining in the building, he added, having helped the original architects to design it. Further, he said, despite having been involved in the bidding process for a recent £3.7m Mayor of London Outer London Fund awarded to the borough, £1.07m of which will benefit the artsdepot, Community Focus will see no benefit. 

Between 30 and 40 staff fear for their jobs and a similar number of volunteers are left in limbo as the charity decides its next move, which will be decided by lawyers, Balogun added. He advised the move has come as a shock:

"The first we heard about the fact we were apparently being evicted was when we received a letter from Tracy Cooper on Tuesday 5th March, the same date as the organisation sent out emails and a press release announcing the new tenant."

Cooper said: "We weren’t able to consult Community Focus ahead of serving notice because the agreement with London Studio Centre was confidential. We’ve given Community Focus as much notice as we were able to and have said that we’ll do all we reasonably can to make this process as straightforward as possible for them. We fully expect them to continue delivering their valuable work for the community. We’ve invited them to open a dialogue but they haven’t yet engaged with us or requested a meeting."

 

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