Mortgage Liability when LandTrust is set up properly

I am new to the forum, have been reading through for days, but haven’t seen a discussion on whether or not the liability of the actual mortgage is passed through to the trust.

I am purchasing an REO currently and the lender is very open to transfering the mortgage to a land trust. The lender is saying on the day after closing, I, the borrower, can transfer the mortgage and deed to a land trust and the liability will be passed to the trust as well and the actually mortgage account will never show up on my personal credit.

Is this true? Gurus of Land Trusts, please enlighten. :stuck_out_tongue:

This could conceivbly be true if the trustee would be willing to accept such liability. However, I doubt that with any properly constructed, land trust (or occidental trust) a trustee would be willing to do that…unless, of course the trustee was you or a company you own. But even then you run the real risk that the trust woulde fail due to a merger of title and a failure of equitable conversion. In a real and solid land trust structure the trustee and the beneficiary should NEVER be the same entity and should always be an arm’s length entity whose death would not subject your property its probate processes (i.e., as is the case with a naturual person as trustee).

Another complexity arises when choosing a corporate trustee…in most jurisdictions the only corporation that can function as trustee are title and trust companies, bank and trust companies, trust companies, and non-profit corporate trustees (501-C) who function regularly as trustees for the members of the non-profit corporation and sho charge a fee that is commensurate with industry standars.

Typically when a property is placed into a land trust, the beneficiaries remain responsilbe for all debt, management and maintenace; and passing any such responsibiltiy to the trustee would likely invlidate a true residential title-holdiong nominee grantor (Illinois-type) land trust.

Bill Gatten

Thank you Bill! I was hoping you would find this post.

It sounds like making the LLC the beneficiary to the trust with the LLC holding all liability is the way to go. I would most likely have a managing Corp. managing the LLC.

I’ve been digging into your website. Thank you again.

–Sparky
(green investor from West Hills, CA)