Chapter CG34380
| Published date | 12 March 2016 |
| Record Number | CG34380 |
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Introduction
Land owned by several people at once
Partnerships
Assets bought in name of / with cash provided by another
Constructive Trusts
Asset pooling – shares – Booth v Ellard
Asset pooling – land – Warrington v Brown
Unincorporated associations
Investment groups
Introduction
If there is a bare trust, it may be such for one of two reasons.
- It may have become a bare trust as the result of the occurrence of a contingency, for example, the death of a beneficiary, an act of appointment or advancement, or a person reaching a particular age. Examples of this kind of event are discussed at CG37000+.
- It may have always been a bare trust. Examples of the kind of case which may arise are discussed in the paragraphs following.
This distinction is somewhat arbitrary. A trust may be bare because a contingency envisaged has already occurred. A good example of this is a will which provides that Miss C will become entitled to property if and when she attains the age of 25. If the testator lives beyond Miss C’s 25th birthday then once the residue of the estate is ascertained, see CG30780+, or an assent is made, see CG30901, there is a bare trust. Before that any liability on a disposal would fall on the executors.
Land owned by several people at once
TCGA92/S60 may apply also to two or more persons who are `jointly’ absolutely entitled, provided that their interests are absolute and concurrent. A familiar example before 1997 was the case of common or joint ownership of land in England or Wales where trustees held the legal title upon `trust for sale’ for the joint tenants or tenants in common (see Kidson v Macdonald, 49TC503). In England and Wales from 1997 almost all absolute and concurrent interests in land will be held under a ‘trust of land’ following the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.
The distinction between tenancy in common and joint tenancy is discussed at CG70500+. Section 34 Law of Property Act 1925 provides that in England and Wales tenancies in common and joint tenancies can only exist as equitable interests (in other words as interests under a trust). The legal title to the land must be held by trustees, even in the simple case of the home owned by two persons living together. These trustees are bare trustees. This is not the case in Ireland, where tenancies in common and joint tenancies may exist as legal interests. The equivalent Scottish interests may also exist without the use of a trust.
The expression...
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