Divorce and the family farm

[Whitewalker]

Evening all, well the parents’ divorce came through about a year ago.

Mum stayed in the farmhouse for a while but it was way too much for a single woman in her mid sixties to upkeep. As of two days ago she has sold the farmhouse 15 acres and moved to a small house in the local town. My wife and I are buying our cottage off the farm.

Luckily the location of the former farmhouse isn’t too integral to the main area of farmland. Our cottage is right next to the yard.
Dad is a bit of a shambles and needs checking up on but is mostly ok. He has turned his place into a carbon copy of the house he grew up in in Barrow-in-Furness. Same old 1970s furniture etc. All a bit disconcerting! Thank God for lockdown as he has discovered online dating.

Dad is still the overwhelming majority partner in the farm business, however according to the accountant it is best to leave it like this as we pay off losses accrued by the starting of the vineyard business. The farm is now turning a profit, which is personally satisfying as it wasn’t before I came back home to run it. The divorce settlement and sale of the farmhouse resulted in funds going towards paying off the farm mortgage, which is good. It’s still fairly hefty, but a lot more sustainable. says the will is in order and my brothers and I are now executors so it shouldn’t end up going to the cats home or his first Tinder match.

It is frustrating though when so much could have been avoided by steering clear of crap life choices namely; lack of communication, affairs and booze!

My new wife and I are staying put for the foreseeable. If it all goes wrong we are minded to move to Devon or Scotland, where we both have links. The politics would have to calm down before any move to Scotland.

Can’t believe I started this thread 3 years ago! Time certainly flies.

sounds like a complicated 3 years . Life certainly isn’t all plain sailing. Hope all settles down for you. Interesting to read the outcome

 

[betweenthelines]

Being Executors of the will makes no difference.

If your father decides to change it in favour of the next women he meets, that's entirely up to him.

 

[O'Reilly]

Being Executors of the will makes no difference.

If your father decides to change it in favour of the next women he meets, that's entirely up to him.

That's true, you need a partnership agreement that states that the farm goes to you, because a partnership agreement is legally binding and takes precedence over a will, which is only a statement of intent, and a partnership agreement cannot be changed without your agreement. Fecking solicitors will keep trying to refer back to the will rather than state explicitly what will happen, which undermines all the point of the excercise. In my experience.