trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

[Twiggy]

Acting as executors on mother-in-laws estate, we have followed the usual procedure of posting a notice in the Gazette and local paper to give us some protection under the trustee act.

We've noted, however, that the act says "nothing in this section....frees the trustees or personal representatives from any obligation to make searches"

We can't understand why we would need to make searches - does anyone actually do that ? The house is being sold so presumably the buyers solicitor will make the necessary searches anyway.

Enlightenment welcomed - is this another of those waiting to catch out the unwary ???

[Kati]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

tagging [MENTION=85500]Peridot[/MENTION] xx

[Twiggy]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

Sorry Kati but I can't make sense of your answer - I don't see any text in it !

[MIKE770]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

she is asking somebody else to pop in here and assist that is how we alert them

[Twiggy]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

she is asking somebody else to pop in here and assist that is how we alert them

Thanks - as you have no doubt deduced, I'm new to the forum - in fact I see I should probably have posted in a better section than 'welcome'

[MIKE770]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

can be moved if necessary later on

[Peridot]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

Hi Twiggy,
Don't panic, sensible to post the Section 27 notices. As long as you have carried out a search of your mother in law's belongings and have contacted any creditors you have been alerted to, that should be sufficient. If you have contacted creditors prior to the notice they may well not contact you again following the placement of the notices. That doesn't mean they don't need paying, so to speak. They will still need dealing with. Basically, if you know of a debt that is due from the estate, it must be dealt with however you hear about it.
The other issue you may need to carry out searches for is when it comes to distributing the estate to the beneficiaries. You should carry out a bankruptcy search of the beneficiaries, to ensure that if they are bankrupt then you deal with their trustee in bankruptcy, not the beneficiary themselves. The bankruptcy search can be carried out here: https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/eiir/ This is a free service which will also give you the contact details of the Trustee in Bankruptcy. It is also worth making a search of the Land Charges Register (which incurs a nominal fee) as this will provide the last 5 years history for the individual. Here is the application form https://www.gov.uk/government/public...pplication-k16 If the individual is on the register you will need to deal with the Trustee in Bankruptcy as I mentioned.
Sometimes the search may throw up someone with the same name. You will then need to check with the beneficiary that the person on the results is not them and get signed confirmation that the search results do not relate to them, before making any payment. The bankruptcy search is only valid for a few weeks so only perform the search once you are ready to pay the legacies out otherwise you may need to repeat the search to provide the protection from being personally liable and potentially have to pay the Trustee in Bankruptcy from your own pocket, should a payment be made to an individual on the register.
As far as selling the property is concerned, the searches you refer to are different and yes the buyers solicitor will deal with these. If for example there is a secured loan then there should be a restriction placed on the title to the property. The solicitors dealing with the sale should be aware and when it comes to repaying the sale proceeds the loan should be dealt with at that time. But this is separate from the section 27 notices.
Hopefully that clarifies things.

[Twiggy]

Re: trustee act section 27 "obligation to make searches"

That's an excellent summary.. thanks