Farms & farm management

We support farming businesses with all aspects of the legal, commercial and regulatory issues associated with managing a farming or rural business.

We regularly advise on the options available to ensure that rural businesses remain sustainable and profitable over the longer term, including helping to identify and manage current and future risks. We also work closely with our clients to successfully put their plans and business activities into action including:

Acquisitions & disposals of farmland
Advising on a wide range of areas, including tackling farmland sales and purchases, acquisition rental, rental of residential and agricultural property, farms, land and rural estates and country houses.

Managing and improving farm sustainability & efficiency
Advising farming businesses on legal documentation and arrangements to facilitate an increase in the sustainability and efficiency of their businesses and the legal arrangements that need to be put in place to implement business change, whether that involves the purchase of new plant and machinery or the installation of biomass boilers with innovative funding structures.

Farm business Structures
Advising on the implementation of arrangements to govern how the farm business is run, such as partnership and shareholders’ agreements, which reflect the evolving needs of the business; whether those needs are to encourage joint owners to co-operate, maximise risk management, mitigate tax burdens or gain third party investment.

Rural Pursuits
We are experienced in the granting and acquiring of various rights to engage in rural pursuits, such as fishing and shooting, and advising on the special considerations that apply in respect of the grant and purchase of these rights.

• Advising on the purchase of a farm and the refinancing of the home farm, advising on matters such as lotting, third-party rights, disputed easements, partnership and future development issues, with a capital value of approximately £3m.
• Dealing with the sale of one of the most valuable tracts of fishing in England.
• Advising a farm business on a voluntary arrangement with creditors to avoid bankruptcy and preserve the farming business as a going concern
• Creating sporting leases of a commercial shoot.