ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that the law of successive interests is complicated, especially when there is an ‘old-style’ settlement and the Settled Land Act is in play. Unfortunately, we cannot yet abandon the strict settlement to the legal graveyard as many existing settlements have time to run and, indeed, because any resettlement of existing settled land will be governed by the Settled Land Act, even if such resettlement takes place on or after 1 January 1997 (s 2 of the TOLATA 1996). An old-style settlement will cease to exist only when there is no land or heirlooms subject to the settlement (s 2(5) of the TOLATA 1996). The relatively new-style trust for successive interests – the trust of land under the TOLATA – is simpler and, therefore, less expensive to establish. The mandatory use of the trust of land for all new successive interests has already simplified this area of land law. One side effect is that the law of concurrent co-ownership (Chapter 3) and successive co-ownership are now governed by the same statutory provisions of the TOLATA 1996.
