I have client who put her house in a lifetime trust largely because she cut three of her four children out. She is the trustee along with the one daughter she gets on with- J. She now wishes to completely about turn and have equity release and wants the house out of trust of course to be able to do this. She has now had nasty fall out with J and despite my best attempts J will not correspond with me so we can retire her as trustee and wind up trust.
Solicitor firm who drew up trust have now written to J but no response. Just wondering if J continues not to respond, would this end up in court? Has anybody had a similar experience?
I assume that within the trust deed itself there is no power to remove a trustee; therefore you would need to consider S36 Trustee Act 1925. Within 36(1) a trustee can be retired if they refuse or are unfit to act but if that trustee has a beneficial interest then the removal needs to be approved by the court. Also the trustee can only be removed if a new trustee is appointed in their place.
The solicitor firm should be able to advise their client as to the next course of action.
Kim Jarvis
Vitality
An application to remove a trustee so that the applicant can immediately distribute the entire trust fund to themselves might be an uphill battle…(but not impossible).