Succession Act 1965 section 95

Creation of estates tail

Section 95 establishes that creating an estate tail in land through a will requires the same formal wording as would be needed if the estate were being created by a deed (a formal legal document executed during the owner's lifetime).

• An estate tail is a historic form of land ownership that restricts inheritance to the direct descendants of the original grantee.
• If a person wishes to create an estate tail through their will, they must use the same precise legal wording ("words of limitation") that would be required in a deed.
• This section removed the previous distinction whereby looser or different language in a will could be interpreted as creating an estate tail, even where such language would not suffice in a deed.
• The provision notably overruled the old common law principle known as Wild's Case, which had allowed certain informal expressions in wills to be construed as creating estates tail.

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