A purpose, an enforcer, and a house

The shop

Elena Voss is not a Mauritian citizen. She wants a Mauritius purpose trust to hold a scholarship fund for a named research topic, and she also wants her house in Tamarin to “sit in the same trust, so there is one structure.” The draft names a qualified trustee. It names no enforcer and no successor. The purpose paragraph is two lines: “to do good in relation to education and the settlor’s other wishes.” Surplus is not dealt with. The duration clause says “perpetual,” which someone has copied from a note about purpose trusts.

There is a second draft, offered by a cousin, that changes the heading to “charitable trust” without changing the purpose. Elena prefers the first draft because it feels more flexible. Both drafts are fictional. The house is fictional. The statute is not.

The week

Monday. The trustee reads section 19(2) and sends the draft back. The list of conditions is longer than the purpose paragraph.

Tuesday. Elena says a letter of wishes can name an enforcer later, and that a perpetual duration shows the draft is already a proper purpose trust. The trustee separates duration from validity.

Wednesday. Her notary asks whether the house can vest now and the enforcer can be appointed “as soon as practicable.” The trustee marks section 19(3) and says the house is a different problem from the missing enforcer.

Thursday. The cousin’s charitable draft arrives. The purpose still includes “the settlor’s other wishes.” Counsel says an exclusive charitable purpose is a section 20 question, and a mixed private purpose does not become charitable by the heading.

Friday. Elena asks for two instruments: a purpose trust that can satisfy section 19(2), with no Mauritius immovable property, and a separate conversation about the house under the Non-Citizens (Property Restriction) Act. The trustee agrees that those are two files.

What they ask

Papers next door

The Non-Citizens (Property Restriction) Act is the house file if Elena, as a non-citizen, wants to hold Mauritius land in her own name or through a body the Act covers. It is not cured by a purpose-trust heading. Shares in a land-rich body have their own definition. A protector, if she later wants one on a beneficiary trust, is optional and is not an enforcer. An enforcer must not act as trustee of the same purpose trust. Tax on a trust is the tax course, with the MRA statement of practice as guidance and the Act as the charge.

The statute

Section 19(2) is the validity list for a purpose trust that has no beneficiary. Section 19(3) is the land bar, and it is not a duration rule. Section 9(2) is why a purpose trust may be perpetual when it is otherwise valid. Section 20 is the charitable exclusive-purpose test. Section 21(2) keeps the enforcer off the trustee’s chair. Read them in that order when a settlor asks for “one flexible structure” and a house.