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This Act may be cited as the Settled Land Act 1958, and shall come into operation on a day to be fixed by proclamation of the Governor in Council published in the Government Gazette, and is divided into Parts and Divisions as follows:
The Acts mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act to the extent thereby expressed to be repealed are hereby repealed accordingly.
Except as in this Act expressly or by necessary implication provided—
all persons things and circumstances appointed or created by or under the repealed Acts or existing or continuing under any of such Acts immediately before the commencement of this Act shall under and subject to this Act continue to have the same status operation and effect as they respectively would have had if such Acts had not been so repealed;
in particular and without affecting the generality of the foregoing paragraph such repeal shall not disturb the continuity of status operation or effect of any rule order appointment application disposition conveyance partition surrender apportionment trust settlement transaction contract tenancy dealing in land arrangement consent title notice charge security liability or right made effected issued granted given accrued incurred or acquired or existing or continuing by or under any of such Acts before the commencement of this Act.
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In this Act, unless inconsistent with the context or subject-matter—
building purposes includes the erecting and the improving of, and the adding to, and the repairing of buildings; and a building lease is a lease for any building purpose or purposes connected therewith;
capital money arising under this Act means capital money arising under the powers and provisions of this Act or any corresponding previous enactment and receivable for the trusts and purposes of the settlement and includes securities representing capital money;
S. 3(1) def. of Court substituted by No. 16/1986 s. 20(a).
Court means the Supreme Court and, in relation to land or an estate or interest in land the value of which land does not exceed the jurisdictional limit of the County Court, the Supreme Court or the County Court;
determinable fee means a fee determinable whether by limitation or condition;
disposition and conveyance include a mortgage, lease, assent, disclaimer, release and every other assurance of property or of an interest therein by any instrument, except a will, and dispose of and convey have corresponding meanings;
hereditaments means real property which on an intestacy might under the law formerly in force have devolved on an heir;
income includes rents and profits;
instrument does not include a statute unless the statute creates a settlement;
land includes land of any tenure, and mines and minerals whether or not held apart from the surface, buildings or parts of buildings (whether the division is horizontal, vertical or made in any other way) and other corporeal hereditaments; also a rent and other incorporeal hereditaments, and an easement right, privilege, or benefit in, over, or derived from land, and any estate or interest in land and also an undivided share in land;
S. 3(1) def. of legal practitioner inserted by No. 18/2005 s. 18(Sch. 1 item 98), amended by No. 17/2014 s. 160(Sch. 2 item 89).
legal practitioner means an Australian legal practitioner;
limitation includes a trust, and trust includes an implied or constructive trust;
mines and minerals mean mines and minerals whether already opened or in work or not, and include all minerals and substances in, on, or under the land, obtainable by underground or by surface working; and mining purposes includes the sinking and searching for, winning, working, getting, making merchantable, smelting or otherwise converting or working for the purposes of any manufacture, carrying away, and disposing of mines and minerals, in or under the settled land, or any other land, and the erection of buildings, and the execution of engineering and other works suitable for those purposes; and a mining lease is a lease for any mining purposes or purposes connected therewith, and includes a grant or licence for any mining purposes;
notice includes constructive notice;
personal representative means the executor, original or by representation, or administrator, for the time being of a deceased person;
possession includes receipt of rents and profits, or the right to receive the same (if any);
property includes any thing in action, and any interest in real or personal property;
purchaser means a purchaser in good faith for value, and includes a lessee, mortgagee or other person who in good faith acquires an interest in settled land for value;
rent includes yearly or other rent, and toll, duty, royalty, or other reservation, by the acre, or the ton, or otherwise; and, in relation to rent, payment includes delivery; and fine includes premium or fore-gift, and any payment, consideration or benefit in the nature of a fine, premium or fore-gift;
securities include stocks, funds and shares;
settled land includes land which is deemed to be settled land; settlement includes an instrument or instruments which under this Act or the corresponding previous enactments is or are deemed to be or which together constitute a settlement, and a settlement which is deemed to have been made by any person or to be subsisting for the purposes of this Act; a settlement subsisting at the commencement of this Act includes a settlement created by virtue of this Act immediately on the commencement thereof; and trustees of the settlement mean the trustees thereof for the purposes of this Act howsoever appointed or constituted;
[1]statutory owner means the trustees of the settlement or other persons who at any time when there is no tenant for life have the powers of a tenant for life under this Act, but does not include the trustees of the settlement where by virtue of an order of the Court or otherwise the trustees have power to convey the settled land in the name of the tenant for life;
tenant for life includes a person (not being a statutory owner) who has the powers of a tenant for life under this Act, and also (where the context requires) one of two or more persons who together constitute the tenant for life, or have the powers of a tenant for life; and tenant in tail includes a person entitled to an entailed interest in any property; and entailed interest has the same meaning as in the Property Law Act 1958;
[2]term of years absolute means a term of years, taking effect either in possession or in reversion, with or without impeachment for waste, whether at a rent or not and whether subject or not to another legal estate, and whether certain or liable to determination by notice, re-entry, operation of law, or by a provision for cesser on redemption, or in any other event but does not include if created after the commencement of the Settled Land Act 1928 a term of years which is not expressed to take effect in possession within twenty-one years after the creation thereof where required by statute to take effect within that period; and in this definition the expression term of years includes a term for less than a year, or for a year or years and a fraction of a year or from year to year;
S. 3(1) def. of trust for sale, trustees for sale and power to postpone a sale amended by No. 29/2011 s. 3(Sch. 1 item 85).
trust for sale, trustees for sale and power to postpone a sale have the same meanings as in the Property Law Act 1958;
S. 3(1) def. of trustee amended by Nos 55/1987 s. 57(3)(Sch. 5 item 45), 45/1994 s. 42(Sch. item 8.1).
trustee includes a trustee company, and a trustee company shall be qualified to be appointed and to act as trustee of the settlement for the purposes of this Act;
S. 3(1) def. of trustee company amended by No. 10168 s. 3.
trustee company means a trustee company under the Trustee Companies Act 1984;
will includes codicil and every other testamentary instrument.
Where an equitable interest in or power over property arises by statute or operation of law, references to the creation of an interest or power include any interest or power so arising.
No. 3771 s. 4.
Subject to the savings referred to in section two hereof this Act shall except where otherwise specially provided apply to and in respect of settlements and other instruments whether made before or after the commencement of this Act.
No. 3771 s. 5.
This Act shall in addition to its general application also apply to lands estates and interests under the Transfer of Land Act 1958. But in dealing with such lands estates and interests the procedure forms of instruments and general requirements and provisions of and prescribed by the said Act are so far as practicable to be followed used and complied with.
No. 3771 s. 6.
There shall not by or under this Act be conferred upon any tenant for life or trustee of any land in Victoria any greater power or authority whatever than he would have if he were an owner in fee-simple of such land.
S. 7 repealed by No. 16/1986 s. 20(b).
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Any deed, will, agreement for a settlement or other agreement, Act of Parliament, or other instrument, or any number of instruments, whether made or passed before or after, or partly before and partly after, the commencement of this Act, under or by virtue of which instrument or instruments any land, after the commencement of this Act stands for the time being—
limited to or in trust for any persons by way of succession; or
limited to or in trust for any person in possession—
for an entailed interest;
for an estate in fee-simple or for a term of years absolute subject to an executory limitation, gift, or disposition over on failure of his issue or in any other event;
for a determinable fee;
S. 8(1)(b)(iv) amended by Nos 9075 s. 5(1), 9427 s. 5(Sch. 4 item 10).
being a minor, for an estate in fee-simple or for a term of years absolute; or
limited to or in trust for any person for an estate in fee-simple or for a term of years absolute contingently on the happening of any event; or
[3]limited to or in trust for a married woman of full age in possession for an estate in fee-simple or a term of years absolute or any other interest with a restraint on anticipation; or
charged, whether voluntarily or in consideration of marriage or by way of family arrangement, and whether immediately or after an interval, with the payment of any rentcharge for the life of any person, or any less period, or of any capital, annual, or periodical sums for the portions, advancement, maintenance or otherwise for the benefit of any persons, with or without any term of years for securing or raising the same—
create or is for the purposes of this Act settlement and is in this Act referred to as a settlement, or as the settlement, as the case requires:
Provided that, where land is the subject of a compound settlement, references in this Act to the settlement shall be construed as meaning such compound settlement, unless the context otherwise requires.
S. 8(2) amended by Nos 9075 s. 5(1), 9427 s. 5(Sch. 4 item 10).
Where a minor is beneficially entitled to land for an estate in fee-simple or for a term of years absolute and by reason of an intestacy or otherwise there is no instrument under which the interest of the minor arises or is acquired a settlement shall be deemed to have been made by the intestate, or by the person whose interest the minor has acquired.
An estate or interest not disposed of by a settlement and remaining in or reverting to the settlor, or any person deriving title under him, is for the purposes of this Act an estate or interest comprised in the subject of the settlement and coming to the settlor or such person under or by virtue of the settlement.
Where—
a settlement creates an entailed interest or a determinable fee; or
the subject of a settlement is an entailed interest, or a determinable fee—
the reversion or right of reverter upon the cesser of the interest so created or settled shall be deemed to be an interest comprised in the subject of the settlement, and limited by the settlement.
No. 3771 s. 9.
The last preceding section shall not apply to land held upon trust for sale.
No. 3771 s. 10.
Land which is or is deemed to be the subject of a settlement is for the purposes of this Act settled land, and is in relation to the settlement referred to in this Act as the settled land.
No. 3771 s. 11.
Land not held upon trust for sale which has been subject to a settlement shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to remain and be settled land, and the settlement shall be deemed to be a subsisting settlement for the purposes of this Act so long as any limitation, charge, or power of charging under the settlement subsists, or is capable of being exercised.
The person of full age who is for the time being beneficially entitled under a settlement to possession of settled land for his life shall for the purposes of this Act be the tenant for life of that land and the tenant for life under that settlement.
No. 3771 s. 13.
If in any case there are two or more persons of full age so entitled as tenants in common, or as joint tenants or for other concurrent estates or interests, they together shall constitute the tenant for life for the purposes of this Act.
No. 3771 s. 14.