Just wondering if anybody out there can try to clarify something for me (longterm MN who's name changed just in case I out myself).
Bit of background to simplify what my issues are (hopefully!)
I'm trying to sort stuff out relating to some land that belongs to myself, my sister and my two cousins that we've inherited. It's in trust - it's been in trust for a long time - back to my dad and grandad, each owning a half share of the land. My dad's share got left to my mum, then she gave me and my sis a half of her half share each. My grandad left his half share to my nan and she gave her share to my cousins, so we all now own a quarter share of the beneficial interest.
When my mum gave my sis and I the land, she thought she had given it to us and that we owned it, as you would do when you buy a house and you become the new owners. Turns out that what the solicitor had done was to give us the beneficial interest but leave her as the owner.
My mum and late uncle were the most recent trustees of the land - but she is now going to make the 4 of us into trustees and retire from being a trustee, and the land is going to be registered as a result. Will this make us the actual owners (in simplistic terms)?
However looking at the trustee documents, the background shows that the beneficial interest has been left to xxx when yyy dies - but never mentions actual ownership. But then Mum got listed as owner on previous documentation as did Uncle who was also a trustee (but he's never actual owned any of it, it skipped him and went to his dc).
So I'm confused - when do you 'own' land and how is this different from having a beneficial interest in it?
(Sorry to ask here but the solicitors that are dealing with all this just seem to make everything more complicated (not helped by the fact that they have been involved with the land itself for over 40 years). Also not helped by the fact that the first version of the document they sent was full of lots of mistakes - like getting the family name wrong more than half the time, addresses wrong, referring to 'the will' but not whose will (could have been any one of 5) or including it in any associated schedule, formatting all over the place and not including any plans of the land even though they thought we were signing it - so all stuff that raises red flags. New versions have come through and there is now only one name spelt wrong and a couple of bits that haven't been added in)
The whole plot gets more confusing as when dad died, he left a share in another plot of land to mum, which we discovered recently is now wholly owned by the inheritors of other co-owner. We know from the other plot of land that the solicitors didn't ask the executors to do any deed of transfer from them to mum, it was something that had to be done a few years down the line when the omission was discovered. And yet this bit of land was done around the time of probate - why would they do one and not the other when dealing with the whole estate - very strange. And the land registry has it down as having had an un-named beneficial charge against it for part of the time in dad's share - but then that dropping when co-owner died and his wife inherited it. All a real shock to mum when she discovered this a few months back as you kind of assume that land you own a share of will remain land you own a share of, nobody has ever asked her for a signature to remove her beneficial interest - how can beneficial interest be taken away from you without you knowing? (worried now that my own beneficial interest could disappear without me knowing!)
We're getting somebody to look at it and the land registry were quite helpful but because of the time it happened - up to 17 years ago, but could have been just 5 years ago, not sure exactly when - it's tricky tracking down documents. And still nobody has been able to explain how the land has been transferred without having the relevant signatures of either the executors or mum, or why they would show a beneficial interest on the land but without a name or how that could disappear.
Sorry, just realised this has got horribly long. if you've made it this far - thank you!