A trust that fails on formality may be unenforceable or void from the outset, so the statutory rules carry real weight. This chapter opens with an overview of how the law treats trusts of land differently from trusts of pure personalty, mapping the territory of sections 53(1)(b), 53(1)(c) and 53(2). It then examines the declaration of trusts of land in detail — whether writing is evidential or constitutive, its timing, and who must sign — before turning to trusts created by will under the Wills Act 1837 and the more relaxed position for personalty. The chapter closes with dispositions of subsisting equitable interests, where non-compliance renders the transaction void, and the fraud exception preserved by section 53(2), which prevents the statute being used as an instrument of unconscionable conduct.
