When a client wants to put property into trust, the first practical question is whether the arrangement needs to be in writing. Get this wrong and a trust may be unenforceable, or a transfer of an interest may be completely void. As a solicitor advising on family homes, gifts, and estate planning, you need to know precisely which formalities bite, on what kind of property, and what the consequences are when they are not met.
This lesson builds that knowledge step by step:
- Formality Requirements: Overview — the writing rules that apply to trusts of land and dealings with equitable interests, and the trusts that escape them.
- Declaring a Trust of Land: Section 53(1)(b) — how an express trust of land must be evidenced, who signs, and why the writing is evidential rather than constitutive.
- Trusts by Will and Trusts of Personalty — declaring trusts of land by will, the execution rules a will must meet, and the freedom to create trusts of money or shares orally.
- Disposing of Equitable Interests: Section 53(1)(c) — the strict writing rule for dispositions, which transactions count, and why failure makes them void.
- The Fraud Exception and Section 53(2) — how equity prevents the writing rules from being used to cheat a beneficiary.