Trusts: 3 certainties

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Elizabeth Newbury

Property 2

Practice Coursework

Sally is wishing to transfer her shares in Home Clean Ltd, and her gold Krugerrands. She is attempting to set up a third party trust, the named property to be held on trust by Tony for the benefit of the beneficiaries, Bertha and Colette. As it is the intention of Sally to create a trust by transferring the property to Tony to act as a trustee, then the trust is incomplete until the transfer is made. It is important to know whether or not the transfer has been made because if it has not then Tony does not hold the property on trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries and the property will instead be left to her husband in her will.

The starting point is that any person who is attempting to create a trust must fulfil certain requirements before their attempt can be given legal effect. These requirements, known as the three certainties, were classified by Lord Lonsdale in the case of Knight v Knight. These are certainty of intention, (the intention to create a trust is clear), certainty of subject matter (the property intended to