Trust to two beneficiaries

[Dolby]

My father passed away and left a property to both my brother and myself 50:50, stipulating we need to reach age 28 in order to recieve any inheritence. I'm 28 and he's 23 now.

I'm 28 and decided to buy half the property from my brother. Everyone seems to agree this is great, as I take ownership of a full property and he (in the trust name) can purchase something.

But - Deeds office and everything just stepped in (after paying R50,000 from my side saying it can't be done, as he's not 28. Wtf?

Surely with everyone's consent, it's ok?

 

[blunomore]

The issue is probably that purpose of the trust has been negated. A trust is normally set up with specific purpose and instructions.

 

[Arzy]

Well without knowing enough about this specific trust it is difficult to say.

In general terms a trust would consist of the Trustees who manage the trust and its assets and the beneficiaries who receive assets/money/profits from the trust. On setting up the trust the trust deed is filed and registered with the deeds office relating to how the trust is supposed to be managed and how any benefits are to flow from the fund under which conditions.

If a decision was taken by the trustees that benefits would flow when you both turned 28 and this decision was registered it is legally binding and can only be changed by the trustees again. This would entail the trustees having a meeting, making the decision and then having the ammendment registered as well with the deeds office.

Its unfortunately not as simple as saying everyone agreed lets get on with it. A trust is a legal entity that exists apart from the individuals that originally set it up and any changes need to come from the trustees and registered with the deeds office before they come into effect.

With the deeds office stepping in here and saying it can't go ahead I would assume that in this instance the stipulation of age was registered; they checked and found that the criteria wasn't met and as such they follow the intructions set out in the deed. For them to change their mind the deed would now need to be amended with them before anything can happen.