Farming family in £5million inheritance row

[Gary Warren]

A lawsuit has been filed by a farmer's son who asserts that his father promised him the family's farm, aiming to secure sole ownership of the lucrative £5 million enterprise, despite opposition from his sisters.

What are everyone's views on this?

Lincolnshire farming family in £5million inheritance row

A farmer's son is taking legal action against his sisters in a determined effort to secure the entire £5 million family farm that he claims was…

www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk

 

[serf]

One things for sure , the lawyers will get out of this one .....

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Sounds like a fairly mean- spirited family and reinforces the need to both have a watertight will AND communicate it’s contents to all concerned while you’re still alive and compos mentis

 

[Bald Rick]

TBF it’s a problem every landowning farmer has if there are more than one child.
In truth, you cannot be fair without breaking up the farm and splitting it equally.

Lot to be said for premogeniture if we are honest

 

[borderterribles]

TBF it’s a problem every landowning farmer has if there are more than one child.
In truth, you cannot be fair without breaking up the farm and splitting it equally.

Lot to be said for premogeniture if we are honest

More to be said for only having the one child, I'd say.

 

[J 1177]

I could have been in a similar boat but much smaller fortunatley iv got a brilliant sister who told the solicitor to jog on when he wanted to hive bits of the farm off to her when my dad died.

 

[PI Stsker]

Happens allot more often than we all care to admit, whether it be by death or divorce I’ve known many farms need to take out massive loans to pay parties off / buy them out.
no matter how watertight a will is, when there’s big lumps of money/land involved it only takes one less interested sibling to throw a spanner in the works.

 

[Forkdriver]

One case I know of where the son got a tenancy of the land which was left to his sister. Large chunks of the land have now gone for housing. He gets tenants compensation, she gets the jackpot.

 

[PI Stsker]

One case I know of where the son got a tenancy of the land which was left to his sister. Large chunks of the land have now gone for housing. He gets tenants compensation, she gets the jackpot.

It pains me to say it, but can you blame the sister? If I were in her shoes and was not interested or have any part of farming life I think I would also lean that way. Say for arguments sake 100 acres, rent it to your brother for nominal amounts or sell the lot for tens of millions and live a very comfortable life.

 

[Gary Warren]

One things for sure , the lawyers will get out of this one .....

That's exactly what I was thinking. They will be rubbing their hands on this one.

 

[Forkdriver]

Fair shares would give him a bit more than legal compensation.

 

[borderterribles]

I have an acquaintance whose Dad died when he was young. His Mum carried on farming until he left school and worked on the farm,eventually running it on his own, living in the farmhouse, whilst his Mum moved into an adjacent house that the business bought for her. When she died, she left her house to his sister and the farm between him and his sister. He had to borrow money to buy his sister out of the land. Meanwhile, the childless farming couple next door had died and left their house to the same sister,and the farmyard to my acquaintance and the land jointly to the two of them. Again he had to borrow money to buy her out of her share in the land. Now you could argue that he now has a sizeable farm for half price, but it has definitely made an old man of him. You could also argue that his sister has the value of the same,without so much as lifting a finger!

 

[Landrover]

I hate reading this sort of thing......because I will have this to go through in the future, all wills no matter how "watertight" are challengeable!

 

[teslacoils]

TBF it’s a problem every landowning farmer has if there are more than one child.
In truth, you cannot be fair without breaking up the farm and splitting it equally.

Lot to be said for premogeniture if we are honest

Firstborns are often dickheads. Second, third child, or even cousins can be a better bet.

 

[Red Fred]

With the great gulf between property values and farm income. I reckon the only fair way is to split it up equally. We only owned 40 acres and dad's dairy buildings but it was obvious that the value was in the development and site of the buildings, and scratching about filling the sheds with a bit of hay was just messing about when my sisters had had to leave the farm and find outside jobs. I would much rather sleep easy at night knowing we all have a fair share and income, and our family is still intact looking out for each other rather than squabbling via lawyers. The 3 of us co-operating have made much more of the buildings than one on their own fighting a rear guard action against the family since my sisters have gained useful skills and knowledge by working away.
My mate's scary father-in-law seemed very hard when he announced he was selling his farm up as soon as he reached 65 and sharing it equally with his 5 daughters, but now he's in his 90s with his family still intact, he says it was a no-brainer and the only way to go as all did nicely with their shares and there was no room for squabbling as they all knew what would happen.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Many ways to skin a cat and all that.
I’ve always got on very well with my core family members. My sister was never going to farm and ended up in a reasonable paying job (doctor).
The business and the land was left solely to me when Dad died. As is fair, there’s a small check and balance to stop me selling up and squandering the family money. My sister would have to OK any land sale which in effect would mean a divvy out to her if I were ever to sell, or alternatively I can pass it on to my kids.

 

[BRB John]

It pains me to say it, but can you blame the sister? If I were in her shoes and was not interested or have any part of farming life I think I would also lean that way. Say for arguments sake 100 acres, rent it to your brother for nominal amounts or sell the lot for tens of millions and live a very comfortable life.

Well not really more like 1.6 million but not even that minus inheritance tax so maybe a million which is still plenty big enough to live off assuming the lawyer doesn't take a good chunk of it...

From what I saw before I got cut off cause I'm not a subscriber
They are all in their 60's
So why not just sell up and split it evenly everyone would be far better off retired.
Plenty better things to do than arse about in the dirt. Especially when you've got a million in your pocket...

 

[serf]

Firstborns are often dickheads. Second, third child, or even cousins can be a better bet.

Take it your the youngest

 

[teslacoils]

Take it your the youngest

No, Im the eldest.

 

[serf]

No, Im the eldest.

Don't put Ur self down , leave that to us ....