Trusts of Land and other Equitable Claims

Overview

As well as being involved at first instance and appellate level of some of the most important and defining cases related to trusts of land and proprietary estoppel, Landmark’s barristers at both junior and silk level are regularly instructed to advise upon and represent parties in cases involving Trusts of Land, in both a residential context and a commercial one.

We are instructed by a wide range of clients, including commercial, institutional and private clients.

Our work includes advising and representing those clients on all matters concerning:

• All matters relating to trusts of land
• Resulting trusts and constructive trusts
• Orders for sale
• Equitable remedies
• Proprietary estoppel.

Members of the property team have acted in a number of the most important cases in this area in recent years, including:

• Cobbe v Yeoman’s Row [2008] UKHL 55 - leading House of Lords decision on the nature of proprietary estoppel and its application in the commercial context
• Baynes Clarke v Corless [2010] EWCA Civ 338 - important Court of Appeal decision on the treatment of subjective intention in identifying informally created constructive trusts
• R(Day) v. Shropshire Council [2023] UKSC 8 - whether a statutory trust survives the sale by a local council of a recreation ground.

Our work in this area is wide-ranging and includes advice and representation in litigation on issues that include the following:

• Existence of trusts
• Powers of trustees
• Co-ownership
• Rights of beneficiaries
• Realisation of beneficial interests
• Orders for sale
• Quantification of parties’ shares in property
• Resulting trusts and constructive trusts
• Interpretation and construction of deeds of trust
• All matters arising under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (“ToLATA”)
• Protection of purchasers; overreaching; rights of beneficiaries in actual occupation
• Rights arising under commercial and development agreements
• Gifts of land
• Equitable remedies for beneficiaries
• Proprietary estoppel (and all other types of estoppel).