Congregation is building a new KH

dustyb

up front at the weekly TCS meeting they are commenting about how much money they've rose for the new kingdom hall. but i was thinking about how they get all the money, and if i understand it correctly, they raise money and sell the old KH property and give ALL that money back to the society. then from there, the society gives out a LOAN w/ like a 3% interest rate, and on top of that, takes the title to the KH and puts the KH in their names. i just have to say thats f**ked up..... anybody know if my method is correct? i'm pretty sure that its the way it goes, but i'm not 100 %....

confusedjw

No that isn't the way it happened at our hall. The money from the sale went into an account and we used it to buy the land, get the ground work going etc. Money was borrowed from the society for the actual difference in what we had and the extra cost of the new hall. Plus other local congregations sent us money.

I myself haven't heard of the scenario that you laid out, but then again I hadn't heard of 587b.c.e. until fairly recently.

undercover

When a congregation borrows money from the WTS, it's borrowing from the building fund. Where did the building fund come from? Donations by the friends the world over. So basically you're borrowing money given to the WTS. You could also say that you're borrowing some of your own money back.

The WTS loans that money at 3% interest to allow the purchase of land, building materials, etc. (The money made from the sale of an old hall goes to this also).

The brothers give free labor, skill and use of tools to erect the building.

After construction the hall is dedicated which means given back to the WTS. Local elders are used to hold the deeds, but the WTS actually owns the property, building and attachments.

So you're borrowing, at interest, to build a building to give back to the lender and still owe them a mortgate payment along with paying all costs of repairs and upkeep.

Nice little real estate scam, huh?

Nocturne

I'm just wondering, what is the wts' excuse for this "theocratic arrangement"? Also, to make things worse, I seem to remember (i was really young when this happened at my old hall) that once a congregation finishes paying the loan from the society, they take out another loan and the congregation has to keep paying to the society. Am I right on this?

No Apologies

Ok this seems to be a urban legend in the making.

After construction the hall is dedicated which means given back to the WTS. Local elders are used to hold the deeds, but the WTS actually owns the property, building and attachments.

Can anyone furnish evidence that the Watchtower actually owns Kingdom Halls directly? I'm not talking about cases where a congregation is paying off a loan from the Society. I mean, somewhere where the deed actually names the Society as owner.

Every congregation I have been in, the cong has a local corporation formed to own the land, pay the bills, etc. Anybody remember the corporation annual meeting, a short little thing after the service meeting where not much happened but everybody voted in members to the local corp?

Looking for facts here, not hearsay, not rumors. Anyone?

No Apologies (of the kidney-harvesting class)

maxwell

Every congregation I have been in, the cong has a local corporation formed to own the land, pay the bills, etc. Anybody remember the corporation annual meeting, a short little thing after the service meeting where not much happened but everybody voted in members to the local corp?
Looking for facts here, not hearsay, not rumors. Anyone?

I don't know the facts on who owned the building and the land, but I don't remember an annual meeting in any of my congregations. I do know that in one congregation I attended, there were three trustees for the property. This was rarely discussed. The only reason that I became aware of it was because at one point one trustee died so they had to replace him, so some announcement was made. I would imagine things might vary from state to state depending on laws about real estate ownership.