Property left to Beneficiary in trust

cathbirky

My step mother recently died and left her house to be divided between her 4 children, both biological and none....She had a further property that is tenanted. Her will states that her son can have use of the tenanted property (either the income it generates or live there himself) in his lifetime, but that the flat is in trust for the benefit of his children and her other biological grandchildren once he has finished with it or after he dies. The son seems to think that he can sell the flat to invest the proceeds to go towards buying a house, and states that a percentage of the house bought with the proceeds will still be in trust for the grandchildren involved. Is this correct and if so how would this property that he bought be protected from him selling it/going bankrupt/re-mortgaging etc when a large chunk of it would actually ultimately belong to the grandchildren?

Margot123

It all depends on the exact wording of the will.
Have you sought the advice of a solicitor with regards to interpreting it?

cathbirky

It's with a solicitor at the moment who he claims to have run it by but at the same time seems to be liaising directly with the estate agent who deals with the flat and bypassing the solicitor. Hopwfully that can only go on so long. He's the executor also which doesn't help

Margot123

cathbirky wrote: »

It's with a solicitor at the moment who he claims to have run it by but at the same time seems to be liaising directly with the estate agent who deals with the flat and bypassing the solicitor. Hopwfully that can only go on so long. He's the executor also which doesn't help

Do you not have a copy of the will? If not, you can get one (and Probate Grant) for £10 on the Government website.
You can seek your own advice too.

getmore4less

Who are the trustees of the trust(it will be IPDI trust)?
they are the ones that need to be dealing with this.

The terms of the trust will determine what can be done.

if the trust allows this to happen then the trustees become legal owners of the trust share.

System

sounds like she knew he would sell it for his own benefit and that's why she wants it to be kept for the grandchildren. surely the solicitors will get onto it before he managed to successfully sell the flat.

DairyQueen

I have exactly this kind of trust arrangement in place within my Will. Obviously you need to take a solicitor's advice about the trust detail but even if the son is a trustee (unlikely) as well as a beneficiary he is legally bound to follow the trust rules and conditions specified by your stepmother. Any attempt at deviation and he will be in very big legal trouble.

I would be very surprised if the trust empowers the son with the legal authority to sell the property either now, or after the estate is settled. His attempts to bypass the solicitor will not therefore facilitate a sale as any prospective purchaser's solicitor will check the property title and the legal position of the vendor. The property title will remain in the name of the deceased until it passes to the trust when the estate is settled. It will then remain in the name of the trust until the conditions are met that trigger the trust to wind-up and the assets to be distributed under the trust terms.

I suspect that the son is ignorant of the legal constraints and that his bombast is a case of wishful thinking. Ignore his 'claims' and rely on your own research and legal advice to check the trust terms and conditions. It may be a good idea to have a diplomatic group chat with all the parents of the grandchildren so that the others know the score, and that the son knows that they know (if you get my drift).