Deed of trust house share question

[Misunderstood999]

So here’s the situation. My grandmothers husband recently put his house into trust, the people in trust are his son and daughter, my mother and myself as equal trustees. There has been a breakdown within the family and “his side” and “our side” no longer speak.

My grandmothers husband is still alive living in the house as a lifelong tennant which isn’t an issue however myself and my mother are looking to sell our trust share as we have no need or want for the property but do not want to see all the proceeds go to the other two trustees.

My question is can we sell our trust entitlement or will we have to deal with the other side of the family if he moves into long term care or passes away? We would like to remove ourselves from this trusteeship as quickly as possible.

Thank you

Hi, I am sorry you are having family issues. I believe you can sell your asset but in a trustee situation you would have to let them have first refusal/inform them of your intent to sell. Your legal rep should be able to do this on your behalf.

Hope that helps

So we could contact the solicitors who set up the trusteeship and inform them of our intent to sell? Then the other trustees would have rights to “buy out” our share is that right?

If they refused who could we sell the share to? Private firms etc?

have you got a copy of the trust deed? Eg some trusts give trustees discretion to give money away eg nothing to a drug addicted child, a big sum to someone going to university etcetc. Other trusts are more like - this house is held in trust for the 4 of you in equal shares (no discretion, no changes). IT might well say you cannot transfer the trust to someone else actually at least until the grandfather dies. Eg often in step families the house is left to the widow and only after she dies to the chilren of the first marriage inherit. Those children are not allowed to break the trust and presumably sell their interest until their step mother dies. Anyway worth asking the original solicitors and they can have a look at what the trust deed says. Presumably the grandfather as still alive can change the terms of the trust at any time if he wants to?

I would inform the original solicitors of your intent and explore the options. It is very dependant on what the trust deed stipulates.

The trust cannot be altered in any way as it was signed and agreed on that he relinquished ownership of the house and became a lifelong tennant under the ownership of the 4 trustees. I know the trust cannot be changed as the son and daughter sent a letter to myself and my mother asking if we would transfer our share to my son. When we refused we got a torrent of abuse that we had stolen the grandfathers house and we should give it him back - strange I know but there has been a complete family breakdown in this.

The main reason for this transfer of ownership was to avoid care costs in the event that the grandfather needing end of life care the the house being taken for payment of said care.

If you recently put the house into trust to avoid care fees ( which I think isn't right) and your mothers husband goes into care in the next few years the whole thing could be irrelevant as the Council could still go after the house under " deliberate deprivation " rules
However, if you had sold your share to the other 2 at that point then I have no idea if they would be able to try and claim back from you
Solicitor is your best bet, although if they didn't warn you about the possible council action then maybe not the ones who set up the trust