Farms & Equestrian Properties
When buying or selling a farm or equestrian property, other issues often arise alongside the title considerations that are involved with residential transactions. Common examples include:
Holdover of Crops
If a farm is sold before harvest, the seller will usually wish to retain the benefit of the use of crops in the ground and the contract will have to include necessary provisions to enable entry for harvest and the use of storage facilities until the crops are sold.
Tenant Right
The seller may wish to charge the buyer a figure in addition to the purchase price for expenses incurred on items which have improved the land, such as the cost of pesticides, lime, fertilisers and manures etc. There may also be additional items such as clamped silage, hay or straw which are to be sold but which did not form part of the buyer’s original offer. The contract will need to provide for the valuation and payment of these items.
Schemes
Farmland is likely to have the benefit of Single Farm Payment Entitlements. It is vital to both parties in a transaction that the value of these are assessed and the benefits transferred to the buyer. Moreover, the buyer should be protected against previous breaches and the seller protected against future breaches. That same principle applies to similar schemes, such as Entry and Higher Level Stewardship Schemes and Woodland Grant & Habitat Schemes.
Early Entry for Crop Cultivation
A buyer may, if contracts are exchanged after harvest with a long completion date, wish to have powers to enter the property prior to completion to, for example, effect autumn cultivations. The contract will need to reflect this.
Planning Issues
A buyer should pay particular attention to building work carried out on farms as structures may easily have been erected which do not have permission for a change of use, if the purpose is no longer agricultural (e.g. equestrian stables or business premises). When advising a buyer, we pay particular attention to such issues.
If you would like to find out more about how we could help you, please complete our online enquiry form or telephone us for some initial guidance.
