Law of Property Act 1922

51 As to who are trustees for the purposes of the Acts, and as to additional powers to appoint trustees.

(1) The persons described in clause (i) of section sixteen of the Settled Land Act, 1890, shall, in the circumstances therein mentioned, be trustees for the purposes of the Acts, whether the settled land is to be sold or otherwise dealt with, and accordingly in that clause the words " or otherwise dealt with " shall be inserted after the word " sold. "

(2) In clause (ii) of section sixteen aforesaid the words " settled land " are hereby substituted for the words " land to be sold. "

(3) Where any persons have been appointed trustees of a settlement, whether by an order of the court or otherwise, or have by reason of any power of sale, or trust for sale or by reason of a power of consent to, or approval of, the exercise of a power or trust for sale, or by virtue of this Act, or otherwise at any time become trustees of a settlement for the purposes of the Acts, then those persons or their successors in office shall remain and be trustees of the settlement as long as that settlement is subsisting or deemed to be subsisting for the purposes of the Acts. In this subsection the expression "successors in office" means the persons who, by appointment or otherwise, have become trustees for the purposes aforesaid.

(4) Where settled land is or has been expressed to be disposed of under a compound settlement of which trustees were appointed by the court, and the capital money (if any) arising on the disposition is or was paid to the persons who, by virtue of the order or any subsequent appointment, appear to be or to have been the trustees of that settlement; and where the person by or on whose behalf the disposition is or was made is or was the tenant for life of the land disposed of under an instrument mentioned in the order as constituting part of such compound settlement (in this subsection called " the principal instrument") then the title of the person to whom the disposition is made shall not be impeachable on the ground that—

(a) the instruments mentioned in the order did not constitute a compound settlement, or

(b) those instruments were not all the instruments at the date of the order or of the disposition, constituting the compound settlement, of the land disposed of, or

(c) any of the instruments mentioned in the order did not form part of the settlement of the land disposed of, or had ceased to form part of the settlement at the date of the disposition;

but nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the rights of any person, in respect of any estate, interest or charge under any instrument existing at the date of the order and not mentioned therein, which would Hot have been overreached if the disposition hail been made by or on behalf of the tenant for life under the principal instrument as such, and there had been trustees of that instrument for the purposes of the Acts, and the capital money (if any) arising on the disposition had been paid to such trustees.

(5) The foregoing provisions of this section shall operate to confirm all dispositions made before the commencement of this Act, but not so as to render invalid or prejudice any order of the court, or any title or right acquired before the commencement of this Act, and shall operate without prejudice to any appointment already made by the court of trustees of a settlement, and to the power of the court in any case hereafter to make any such appointment.

(6) Where at the commencement of this Act any persons appointed under section sixty of the Settled Land Act, 1882, have power to act generally or for any specific purpose on behalf of an infant, then those persons shall, by virtue of this Act, become and be the trustees of the settlement.

(7) Where a settlement is created by will, or a settlement has arisen by, the effect of an intestacy, and apart from this subsection there would be no trustees for the purposes of the Acts of such settlement, then and in either of such cases the personal representatives of the deceased shall, until other trustees are appointed, be by virtue of this Act the trustees of the settlement; but where there is a sole personal representative (not being a trust corporation) it shall be obligatory on him, and he shall have power to appoint an additional trustee to act with him for the purposes of the Acts, and the provisions of the Trustee Act, 1893, as amended by any subsequent enactment, shall apply accordingly.

(8) Where at the commencement of this Act there is an infant who (by virtue of this Act or otherwise) is, or is deemed a tenant for life, or would if he were of full age have the powers of a tenant for life, and there are no trustees of the settlement (whether by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Act or otherwise), then, if there is no other person able and willing to appoint trustees, the father or mother or testamentary or other guardian of the infant if respectively able and willing shall (in the order named) have power by deed to appoint new trustees of the settlement in the place of any former trustee, or, where no former trustee has been appointed, to appoint trustees of the settlement in like manner as if a trustee had been appointed and had refused to act in the trust, and the provisions of the Trustee Act, 1893 (as amended by any subsequent enactment), shall apply as if the persons aforesaid (in the order named) had been nominated by the instrument creating the settlement for the purpose of appointing new trustees thereof :

Provided that in favour of a purchaser a statement in the deed of appointment that the father or mother or both are dead or are unable or unwilling to make the appointment shall be conclusive evidence of the fact stated.

(9) The last paragraph of section sixty of the Settled Land Act, 1882, commencing with the words " and if there are none " is hereby repealed.

(10) Where the Public Trustee or any other trust corporation is the sole trustee of a settlement, the corporation shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in sections thirty-nine and forty-five of the Settled Land Act, 1882, or the settlement, have power and be deemed always to have had power to give receipts, accept notices, and otherwise act alone as trustee of the settlement for all the purposes of the Acts.