I have a situation involving a will trust involving a property where one of the owners has now died. The deceased’s share of the property has now passed according to the will to the trustees (who are also the beneficiaries of the will), at least in theory. The remaining partner was granted a life interest in the deceased half of the property but the life interest beneficiary/trustee wishes to sell, as they are allowed to do, however this is being done at a significant undervalue to a friend. The life interest beneficiary/trustee claims they are sole proprieter and no permission is required from the trustees for sale of the house.
I can only assume that this, if correct, arises from the fact that the property is unregistered as if it were there should have been a registration made with the trustees as co-owners and a form A restriction registered on the property. What follows is based on my assumption that this is technicality that allows this to arise. A request for the deeds or for a first registration has been made but the life interest owner is refusing to do so and believe there is no compulsion on them to do so. It appears they believe this will limit their power to do as they wish with the property as they believe themselves to be sole proprietor due to the technicality that the house was not registered before the death of the other spouse, and that in this particular situation there are no triggering events to make registration compulsory. The life interest beneficiary/trustee states that they have placed the death certificate with the deeds but state that the trust is effectively inactive until they sell the property and the new owner registers it, at which point they will place the new house in the name of the trustees, effectively rendering the trustees powers to protect the beneficiaries interests void effectively over the current property.
A number of the trustees (and beneficiaries) are very unhappy and wish to prevent the sale and/or to insist the life interest owner seek financial advice prior to a sale and also to respect the wishes of the deceased which appear to not be reflected in the sale (the deceased wished for the property to be offered first to family members but I am not sure this is binding on the life interest owner in any case due, merely noteable for it’s non standard inclusion.) The solicitor of the life interest beneficiary/trustee (and claimed sole proprieter) holds the deeds of the house and will not allow the trustees to see them or to register them themselves with the land reigstry. In theory the trustees should be co-owners and therefore able to register the house, if they had the deeds, but as the house is unregistered it appears they cannot without the surviving spouses permission, nor can they claim the deeds are lost as they are not lost but withheld. Is this a potential situation where a court can intervene to request that the property be registered to provide the trustees with the powers they should in theory have if the property had been registered? Is the life interest beneficiary/trustee acting appropriately in refusing to register the property for their own interests? The trustees would prefer not to go to court but feel they have no option at this point. What are their chances of success?