Land Held in a Trust: Who Signs the Solar Lease, and How to Find Them

The parcel fits. Flat, close to the substation, the right size. The owner line reads "SMITH JOHN R & MARY L TRS, SMITH FAMILY REVOCABLE TRUST DTD 3/14/2004." Your letter goes to the farmhouse address under that name.

Nobody answers. John died four years ago. Mary moved in with their daughter in Denver after her memory went, and under the trust the daughter took over as trustee. Your letter is in a pile at a house no one checks.

The short answer: when land is held in a trust, the trustee signs the solar lease. Not the beneficiaries, and not the trust itself, because a trust can't hold title. The trustee holds legal title and signs as trustee. In most states the trustee also has the legal power to sign a lease that runs longer than the trust will last.

So the signing question is usually simple. The hard part is finding the trustee who can sign today, because it's often not the name on the deed.

Who signs a lease when the property is in a trust

The trustee does, in the trustee's capacity. The signature block reads something like "Jane Smith, as trustee of the Smith Family Revocable Trust dated March 14, 2004."

That wording matters. A trust isn't a person in the way an LLC is. California case law puts it plainly: legal title to trust property is held by the trustee. One California law firm notes that title companies routinely refuse to accept a deed that names only the trust and leaves the trustee out. Your lease shouldn't repeat that mistake.

The beneficiaries are the people the trust exists for, often the children. They have an interest in the land, but they aren't the ones who sign.

When there are two trustees, as with a married couple, both are usually acting. The Uniform Trust Code lets co-trustees who can't agree act by majority, but the trust document can say otherwise. The certification of trust, below, tells you whether one trustee can sign or all of them must. Until you have it, plan on every acting trustee signing.

Can a trustee sign a 30-year lease?

Usually, yes. The Uniform Trust Code, adopted in some form by 36 states and jurisdictions as of 2022, gives a trustee the power to enter a lease "even though the period of the lease extends beyond the duration of the trust." The same section lets a trustee grant an option that can be exercised after the trust ends.

That second power matters if you start with an option agreement. A trustee can grant you the option and, in states that follow the UTC, the lease that follows.

Two cautions. Each state wrote its own version, so wording varies. And the trust document itself can limit what the trustee may do. That's why the title company will want proof of the trustee's authority before you close.

You don't need to read the trust

The trust agreement is private. It never becomes a public record, and most trustees won't hand it to a developer they just met.

You don't need it. Under the Uniform Trust Code, a trustee can give you a certification of trust instead. It's a short signed statement that the trust exists and who the current trustee is. It can also set out the trustee's powers and whether the trust can still be revoked. It says whether co-trustees must all sign. It doesn't have to show who inherits what.

A person who relies on that certification in good faith isn't liable if it turns out to be wrong. And in states with this rule, someone who demands the full trust on top of the certification, without good reason, can be liable for damages.

So when a trustee wants to move forward, ask for a certification of trust. A trustee who feels you're asking about the family's private business will often stop answering.

Why the name on the deed is often the wrong person

Many trusts on a parcel list are revocable living trusts, and the name usually says so. The owner puts the land in the trust and names himself as trustee, so for years the deed and the person match.

Then he dies. The trust becomes irrevocable and the successor trustee named in the document takes over. The land passes without probate, which means there's no court file.

That's what makes trust parcels different from a deceased owner's land that goes through probate. A probate search turns up an executor. On trust land, the same search turns up nothing. The county record still shows the dead man as trustee, and nothing public says who replaced him.

Sometimes there's a paper trail. In California, a successor can record an affidavit of death of trustee with the county. It attaches the death certificate and names the person now serving as successor trustee. Not every state has that step, and plenty of successors never take it.

It also helps to know what a trust isn't. It's usually the opposite of heirs' property. Land that passes without a will can split among dozens of cousins who all have to sign. Land in a trust stays whole, and one trustee, or a small set of them, can sign for all of it.

Who the trustee usually turns out to be

Successor trustees are commonly an adult child, another relative, a friend, or a bank trust department or trust company. If the trust named nobody, a probate court appoints one.

Each reads your letter differently.

The original owner, still alive

The easy case. He is the trustee and the farmer. Treat it as a normal lease conversation. He set up the trust with an estate attorney, so he may want that attorney to read the lease.

The adult child in another state

A common case, since many families name an adult child. She may not have walked the land in years. She has to run the trust solely in the interests of the beneficiaries, who are often her siblings, so she'll want to talk to them before she says yes. Give her something she can forward: the yearly figure for that parcel, the term, and who removes the equipment at the end.

The bank trust officer

A trust officer manages the land for the family and has no attachment to it. The answer goes through the bank's own review, so it rests on the paper you send. Send the same one-page summary, addressed to the trust officer by the trust's name. A letter to "Owner" at the farm address won't get to the bank.

How to find the current trustee

Work in this order.

1. Read the full deed, not the assessor's line. The recorded deed gives the trustee names, the trust name and the date. A trust dated decades ago is more likely to have a successor by now.
2. Search the recorder's index for anything filed later. Look under both the trust name and each trustee's name: an affidavit of death of trustee, a successor trustee affidavit, a trustee's deed, a recorded certification of trust.
3. Check where the tax bill goes. If the mailing address is a bank, or a house in another state, that's often your trustee.
4. Read the obituary of the trustee on the deed. It lists the surviving spouse and children, often with the towns they live in. Many families name an adult child as successor.
5. Ask the person you find if they're the acting trustee. One plain question saves a month of letters to the wrong sibling.

This is the same method as finding who can sign for an LLC: read the recorded document, then look for the more recent one.

Why trust parcels sit unanswered on your list

A letter for a trust parcel goes wherever the county record points: the trust's name at the property address, or a trustee who died years ago. Nobody there opens it, and the parcel gets marked as no response.

The land isn't off the market. The person who can sign just never saw your letter.

You don't have a land problem. You have a contact problem. Trust parcels show it more clearly than almost any other owner type, because the person who can sign is real, has full authority, and is one search past the deed.

On one campaign for a developer in Georgia, once the owners were reached another way, 1 in 9 parcels wanted to talk about a lease. Those owners were on the developer's list from the start.

If your list has a column of trusts marked no response, send it over and book a call.