Contingent Interest in United Kingdom

Definition of Contingent Interest

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Contingent Interest : An interest that can only come into being upon the occurrence of a specified event (for example when A conveys land to B provided he marries). As a contingent interest can only come into being in the future, if at all, it cannot exist as a legal estate in land. Before 1997, such a transaction created a settlement to which the Settled Land Act 1925 applied. From 1997, such a transaction gives rise to a *trust of land under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Contingent interests are consequently *equitable interests only.

Compare conditional interest; determinable interest.