Agricultural and Rural Business Solicitors

Our specialist agriculture solicitors can assist with the full range of agricultural legal issues. This includes:

Land, agricultural premises and estates

The Group acts on a wide range of agricultural-related property matters involving rural businesses.

Our agriculture lawyers advise and assist with farm, estate and development land sales and purchases including conditional contracts, overage arrangements, options and transactions involving the need for changes in planning.

We have particular expertise in selling and purchasing land for development. Such transactions require careful structuring and specialist documentation depending on the individual case.

Our agriculture solicitors help find the most appropriate structure and draft the necessary documentation to include preparation of promotion agreements, joint-venture documentation and other conditional agreements.

Our clients are often looking to diversify and explore commercial opportunities. These may involve the grant of rights for drainage mining/minerals opportunities, access rights, and renewable energy etc.

Our team of agriculture experts are able to provide specialist advice and work with our network of professional contacts in these areas to ensure our clients can take the best advantage of the opportunities and minimise risk.

We support our clients’ business diversification activities and assist with their commercial lease requirements, advising at heads of terms stage and transactionally.

Our agriculture lawyers recognise that not all business relationships proceed smoothly and from time to time issues can arise. We are able to provide commercial advice in relation to property and business disputes on a cost-effective basis.

Business Structures

Every landed estate and agricultural business has different challenges and opportunities. This may involve diversifying the current business offering, entering into a new business venture or restructuring the business to facilitate a smooth transition to the next generation. 

We will bring fresh thinking and commercial solutions.

Our agriculture solicitors regularly advise our agricultural and rural clients and also have particular expertise in respect of:

• preparing and advising on constitutional documentation (i.e. shareholders agreements, partnership agreements and limited liability partnership agreements);
• retirement and admission of new partners or shareholders;
• succession and retirement planning;
• mergers and farm sharing arrangements; and
• advising on the transition from the traditional partnership model to a limited company status or a hybrid mix of the two.

Our agriculture team take the time to understand your business structure to ensure that you receive legal advice appropriate to your specific circumstances.

Succession Planning & Wealth Management

Our specialists regularly advise farming families, rural business owners and landowners on the best way to pass their assets on to their family.

Planning is essential to ensure that this is done in a tax-efficient way and to minimise the likelihood of disputes after death.

Often our clients need trust advice to enable them to protect wealth and look after their beneficiaries. We can advise on whether a trust is suitable for your situation and explain how this would work in practice.

Our agriculture experts can assist with the following common concerns:

• Inheritance tax planning and the availability of reliefs, such as Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief;
• preparing tax-efficient Wills suitable to your circumstances;
• protecting assets from third parties, for vulnerable beneficiaries or for tax purposes;
• preparing for times of illness or issues with mental capacity;
• how to fairly divide assets between beneficiaries;
• dealing with a business after death.

We work with other experts within the property and corporate teams, as well as other professionals, to provide tailored, all round advice.

Our agriculture team find that our clients value our practical and personal approach, which ensures that they get the right advice for their circumstances and their concerns.