1(1)A settlement subsisting at the commencement of this Act is, for the purposes of this Act, a trust instrument.E+W
(2)As soon as practicable after the commencement of this Act, the trustees for the purposes of this Act of every settlement of land subsisting at the commencement of this Act (whether or not the settled land is already vested in them), may and on the request of the tenant for life or statutory owner, shall at the cost of the trust estate, execute a principal vesting deed (containing the proper statements and particulars) declaring that the legal estate in the settled land shall vest or is vested in the person or persons therein named (being the tenant for life or statutory owner, and including themselves if they are the statutory owners), and such deed shall (unless the legal estate is already so vested) operate to convey or vest the legal estate in the settled land to or in the person or persons aforesaid and, if more than one, as joint tenants.
(3)If there are no trustees of the settlement then (in default of a person able and willing to appoint such trustees), an application shall be made to the court by the tenant for life or statutory owner, or by any other person interested, for the appointment of such trustees.
(4)If default is made in the execution of any such principal vesting deed, the provisions of this Act relating to vesting orders of settled land shall apply in like manner as if the trustees of the settlement were persons in whom the settled land is wrongly vested.
(5)This paragraph does not apply where, at the commencement of this Act, settled land is held at law or in equity in undivided shares vested in possession.
(6)In the case of settlements subsisting at the commencement of this Act, all the estates, interests and powers thereby limited which are not by statute otherwise converted into equitable interests or powers, shall, as from the date of the principal vesting deed or the vesting order, take effect only in equity.
[F1This sub-paragraph shall not apply to any legal estate or interest vested in a mortgagee or other purchaser for money or money’s worth.]
(7)This paragraph does not apply where settled land is vested in personal representatives at the commencement of this Act, or where settled land becomes vested in personal representatives before a principal vesting deed has been executed pursuant to this paragraph.
(8)No ad valorem stamp duty shall be payable in respect of a vesting deed or order made for giving effect to an existing settlement.
Textual Amendments
F1Para. added by Law of Property (Amendment) Act 1926 (c. 11), Sch.