Law of Property Act 1922

53 Absolute owners, subject to certain interests, to have the powers of a tenant for life, and as to infants.

(1) Where a person of full age is beneficially seised or entitled in possession of or to a legal estate subject to any estates, interests, charges, or powers of charging subsisting or capable of being exercised under a settlement, he shall have the powers of a tenant for life under that settlement, and section fifty-eight of the Settled Land Act, 1882, shall apply accordingly.

(2) Where a person of full age is beneficially seised or entitled in possession of or to a legal estate subject to any equitable interests or powers which by Part I. of this Act would have been protected if that legal estate had been subject to a settlement at the time when the equitable interests or powers were created or arose, then, for the purpose of overreaching such interests or powers,' he may, notwithstanding any stipulation to the contrary, by deed, which shall have effect as a vesting deed, declare that the legal estate is vested in him on trust to give effect to all equitable interests and powers affecting the same, and appoint two or more individuals (approved either by the persons in whom the equitable interests or powers are vested or by the court) or a trust corporation to be trustees of such deed for the purposes of the Acts, and thereupon the following provisions shall have effect:—

(a) He shall have the powers of a tenant for life and the land shall be deemed settled land ;

(b) The instrument (if any) under which his estate arises or is acquired, and the instrument (if any) under which the equitable interests or powers are subsisting or capable of taking effect shall be deemed to be the trust deed; provided that where there is no such instrument as last aforesaid then a deed (which shall take effect as a trust deed) shall be executed contemporaneously with the vesting deed, and shall declare the trusts affecting the land;

(c) The trustees for the time being of the vesting deed for the purposes of the Acts shall also be the trustees for the like purposes of the trust deed; and

(d) Capital money arising on any disposition of the land shall be paid to or by the direction of the trustees of the vesting deed or into court, and shall be applicable towards discharging or providing for payment in due order of any principal money payable in respect of such interests or charges as are overreached by such disposition, and until so applied shall be invested or applied as capital money under the trust deed; and the income thereof shall be applied as the income of such capital money, and be liable for keeping down in due order any annual or periodical sum which may be overreached as aforesaid.

(3) Sections fifty-nine and sixty of the Settled Land Act, 1882 (as extended by this section), shall apply and be deemed always to have applied, although the infant may be a married woman, and shall have effect subject to the provisions of Part I. of this Act requiring the settled land during a minority to be vested iii the statutory owner unless retained by a personal representative ; and section fifty-nine aforesaid shall extend and be deemed always to have extended to any leasehold interest whether at a rent or not, and section forty-one of the [44 & 45 Vict. c. 41.] Conveyancing Act, 1881, is hereby repealed.

(4) Where an infant will become beneficially entitled to land in possession on his attaining full age, and at any time during the minority there is no person having the powers of a tenant for life thereof, then for the purposes of the Acts the land is settled land and the infant shall be deemed tenant for life thereof, and the interest of any person (other than the infant) in the rents and profits during the minority shall be deemed to be an interest created by the settlement which is capable of being overreached under the Acts.

(5) The instrument (if any) under which the estate or interest of an infant, who is deemed a tenant for life of settled land, arises or is acquired shall be deemed to be the settlement; but where, by reason of an intestacy or otherwise "there is no such instrument then a settlement shall be deemed to have been made by the intestate or other person through whom the infant derived title. .

(6) The court may, where necessary or expedient, appoint trustees of any instrument or instruments which under the Acts is or are to be deemed or which together constitute the settlement, or of a settlement which is deemed to be subsisting, or of a settlement deemed to have been made by any person, and the provisions of section thirty-eight of the Settled Land Act, 1882, shall apply accordingly.