what are implied trusts?

Answer 1

The whole doctrine of equity and trusts goes back to the Crusades, when men were obliged to put their affairs in the hands of others and trust them to behave honourably and with the interests of their family at heart. A trust can be express, i.e. set down on paper for anyone to see, or can simply be inferred from the conduct of the parties. Implied trusts, therefore, are those which arise when the terms or circumstances do not specifically express but simply imply a trust. To put it in very simplistic terms, if I ask you to hold my bag while I run down the road on some urgent business, I have not given you the bag as a present, I have simply asked you to look after it for me. Anyone turning up at that point and seeing you holding the bag might suppose that it is your bag, but in fact you are holding it on my behalf until I reappear. Nothing specific has been said, but our conduct and all the circumstances imply the existence of a trust between us.

Answer 2

An implied trust is generally accepted as being any private trust that is not an express trust. Mutual wills and voluntary conveyances of land are examples of implied trusts.

Resulting trusts and constructive trusts are an example of implied trusts, it is a matter of terminology.

Look at

Burns v Burns [1984] Ch 317
Peter v Belbow (1993) 101 D.L.R (4th) 621

This gives you a start.

Good luck

Answer 3

Further down, someone else is asking a question headed "Legal matter involving a house sale", which gives a good example of a situation in which an implied trust can arise - nothing in writing, but justice demands that some of the money arising from a house sale goes to someone who contributed to its purchase, but whose name isn't on the deeds.