Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

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Key definition

Strict settlement definition

What does Strict settlement mean? An arrangement for holding land so one person has a life interest (the tenant for life) and others take in succession (remaindermen), with management governed by statute. In England and Wales, strict settlement is the conventional label for a settlement within the Settled Land Act 1925 regime. The tenant for life has statutory powers to sell, lease or mortgage; sale proceeds (capital money) are paid to the trustees of the settlement for investment and authorised purposes, with remaindermen protected by overreaching on a disposition. Historically used to preserve family estates (often involving entails), strict settlements now arise mainly in older...

Strict Settlements and Entails under the SLA 1925 (England and Wales): Powers, Conveyancing, Tax, Death Procedures and Post‑TOLATA 1996 Issues

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Practice notes

What is a strict settlement?

A strict settlement is an arrangement concerning land within the scope of the Settled Land Act 1925 (SLA 1925). Some were crafted in highly intricate forms, developed by lawyers over centuries as a practical mechanism for preserving a family’s estate, while others were far more straightforward. Under the overall pattern of the 1925 property reforms, where land was held on trust it would generally be either governed by a strict settlement or placed on a trust for sale (though a few bare trusts of land sat outside both). The 1925 regime assumed that, for land intended to be kept for the long term, a strict settlement would be the usual vehicle. In reality, however, trusts for sale had, to a large extent, replaced strict settlements even before the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA 1996) was passed. The effect of TOLATA 1996 was to introduce a new trust model, the trust of land. Existing trusts for sale were automatically treated as trusts of land. From the commencement of TOLATA 1996 (1 January 1997), creating new strict settlements ceased to be possible. Accordingly, modern land trusts operate under that framework rather than traditional...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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