HB 261 – AS INTRODUCED

2009 SESSION

09-0681

05/01

HOUSE BILL 261

AN ACT relative to the conveyance of real property to or from trusts.

SPONSORS: Rep. Shurtleff, Merr 10

COMMITTEE: Judiciary

ANALYSIS

This bill provides that a conveyance of real property to or from a trust shall be deemed to have been made to or from the trustees of the trust.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

09-0681

05/01

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine

AN ACT relative to the conveyance of real property to or from trusts.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Section; Conveyance of Real Property to or from Trust. Amend RSA 477 by inserting after section 25 the following new section:

477:25-a Conveyances To or From Trusts Without Naming Trustee.

I. In any conveyance of real property or any interest in real property in this state, if the grantee or one or more of the grantees is named as a trust, whether the trust is created under the laws of this state or of any other jurisdiction, and no trustee of that trust is named as a grantee in his or her capacity as trustee, then the conveyance is deemed to have been made to all of the trustees of the trust in their capacity as trustees of the trust, as though they had been named as grantees instead of the trust.

II. In any conveyance of real property or any interest in real property in this state, if:

(a) The granting clause designates or includes as grantor a trust, whether the trust is created under the laws of this state or of any other jurisdiction, and the granting clause does not include as grantors one or more individuals expressly described as trustee of the trust; or

(b) The signature block designates the trust as a signatory entity, followed by the signatures of one or more individuals expressly described as trustees; or

(c) Both of the foregoing, then the conveyance is deemed to have been made by all of the individuals who signed the instrument of conveyance in the expressly denoted capacity of trustees of the trust, as though they had been named as such in the granting clause as grantors instead of the trust.

III. Any person who claims title to any real property or any interest in real property in this state by virtue of the failure of an instrument of conveyance delivered before the effective date of this section to name as grantor or as grantee any trustee of a trust may preserve that claim by recording a notice, within 2 years from the effective date of this section, in the registry of deeds where the instrument of conveyance is recorded. In order for the notice to be effective, it must contain the name and mailing address of the claimant, the names of the parties to the instrument of conveyance that is claimed to be defective, the names of the current owners of record, the book and page numbers where the instrument of conveyance is recorded, and a statement of the purported defect on which the claim is based. The notice described in this paragraph may be presented for recording by the claimant or by any other person acting on behalf of a claimant who is under a disability or is unable to assert a claim on the claimant’s own behalf, but a disability or lack of knowledge of any kind does not suspend or extend the period for the recording of the notice.

IV. This section does not apply to any trust that, as determined by the laws of its situs, is an entity capable of holding and conveying title in its own name.

V. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to recognize trusts created under the laws of this state as entities capable of holding or conveying title to real property in their own names. This section applies to conveyances made before, on, or after the effective date of this section, but nothing contained in this section shall be construed to suggest or require that any instrument delivered before the effective date of this section is invalid. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to extend the period for the commencement of an action or for the performance of any other required act under any statute of limitations.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.