Is it legal to assign beneficial ownership of a property without transferring the title?

Question

Suppose an individual owns a house for investment purposes and wants to assign the ownership of the house to a trust. To avoid the need for stamp duty and other complexities, could the owner just sign a contract with the trust that assigns all benefits associated with the ownership of the property to the trust?

Answer 1

england-and-wales

Is it legal to assign beneficial ownership of a property without transferring the title?

Yes. To do this, the property owner can appoint themself as the sole trustee (Milroy v Lord).

Could the owner just sign a contract with the trust that assigns all benefits associated with the ownership of the property to the trust?

That would not be a valid contract. A valid contract requires an exchange of consideration (eg a promise for a promise). A promise to put all proceeds into the trust in exchange for nothing is therefore not enforceable. Even if the owner intends to be legally bound by this agreement, they won't be. In the owner's lifetime, this is unlikely to be problematic. They can continue to pay any proceeds of the property (eg rental income) into the trust and avoid the stamp duty associated with a legal transfer of ownership. If the owner sells in their lifetime, they can put this money into the trust. Similarly, if the owner does not sell the property in their lifetime then they should make a declaration of trust in their will (which will be subject to inheritance tax).

[Will this] avoid the need for stamp duty and other complexities[?]

There was never a need to pay stamp duty. Stamp Duty Land Tax is a charge on the money given for purchasing land. This means it won't usually apply to transfers to a trust (where there is typically no payment at all for the property). There is one exception to this. If the property has an outstanding mortgage then the act of agreeing to pay the remainder of the mortgage is a valid form of consideration.

You also mention "other complexities". I will not address this as you need to be more precise about exactly what you mean by that.