Freeloaders

[Walterp]

maybe it is because i am not an legal eagle , that i can't understand how if you move away how you can still have ties with the home farm , unless you are not telling the stork in english

We didn't - it was pretty obvious that some farm business problems are insoluble, and I thought that the home farm would end up being sold. I'd agree with Caveman's impressions. So we took my brother on board here, lent him money, and he agreed to hold other property for me, 'cos we were sympathetic to his situation and didn't see why he should end up on the road just 'cos he'd been taken advantage of when younger.

Fast forward a decade, by which it became obvious to a blind man that the home farm was probably a lost cause, and what happened wasn't what I expected - my brother decided that, as he'd been taken advantage of, he'd take advantage of us. Everyone (except, perhaps, my old man) wasted 5 years, and £750,000 in costs, fending off my brother's attempts to blackmail me and Julie into giving him one of our farms. He failed in that, but we never got our loans or our property back.

I know we wanted him to have a place, but I didn't realise he meant my place....

 

[Roger Perry]

Got to cast it adrift Walter, until you do it will eat you up. The ability to forgive is a very liberating experience I have found, the injustice you have suffered will never go completely away but if you can find the strength in your heart to forgive the wrongs that have been done to you.............you will be a much better man plus, we will love you for it..!

 

[Baling Hay]

This might sound bad but I find Walter's stories of family farms around the country quite interesting! Makes me realise that ours isn't an isolated incident!!!

 

[grumpy]

This might sound bad but I find Walter's stories of family farms around the country quite interesting! Makes me realise that ours isn't an isolated incident!!!

thats just standard,you think you have all the worries and bad luck in the world then you hear about other folks lives and realise yours aint that bad,but that said walt getting eating up by bitterness will only harm himself and those he holds dear.ironic him being a solicitor and posting about bitter divorces and the bile that follows and he is falling in to the same pit of resentment.

 

[DRC]

We didn't - it was pretty obvious that some farm business problems are insoluble, and I thought that the home farm would end up being sold. I'd agree with Caveman's impressions. So we took my brother on board here, lent him money, and he agreed to hold other property for me, 'cos we were sympathetic to his situation and didn't see why he should end up on the road just 'cos he'd been taken advantage of when younger.

Fast forward a decade, by which it became obvious to a blind man that the home farm was probably a lost cause, and what happened wasn't what I expected - my brother decided that, as he'd been taken advantage of, he'd take advantage of us. Everyone (except, perhaps, my old man) wasted 5 years, and £750,000 in costs, fending off my brother's attempts to blackmail me and Julie into giving him one of our farms. He failed in that, but we never got our loans or our property back.

I know we wanted him to have a place, but I didn't realise he meant my place....

Having made a success of your career in the legal profession,why did you feel the need to buy back the family farm, when the obvious thing to do, would be to put as much distance between you and the family.
Are you trying to teach them a lesson?

 

[Baling Hay]

Having made a success of your career in the legal profession,why did you feel the need to buy back the family farm, when the obvious thing to do, would be to put as much distance between you and the family.
Are you trying to teach them a lesson?

Why not go straight to France?

 

[Deereone]

Good evening Walter (and followers),
I've only read the first post (so far), and it bought to mind the story of the Chinese farmer:
In short- The farmer's horse went AWOL. The neighbours sympathised and said "bad luck" the farmer replied "maybe!". The following day the horse returned with 7 wild horses. The neighbours said "how fortunate" the farmer replied "maybe!". The following day the farmer's son fell and broke his leg whilst breaking in one of the new horses, the neighbours said "bad luck", "maybe" replied the farmer. The next day the recruiting officer came round to conscript the farmer's son, but had to leave empty handed (because of the broken leg) "good luck" said the neighbours "maybe! exclaimed the farmer...........

Moral:
Que sera sera

 

[snowhite]

Why not go straight to France?

the french might make his family look like a picnic ; lol

 

[7610 super q]

Dear god,nearly 200 posts.No more wishy-washy let it go walt nonsense.OP needs to tie family members he doesn't like to the taarup mower he doesn't like and dump the lot in a nearby limestone quarry.

Disclaimer:7610 super q doesn't condone murder,or dumping stuff in quarries.

 

[Sussex Martin]

If Walters side of the story bears any resemblance to the truth and I was in his position I would probably be behind bars by now!

 

[Walterp]

Having made a success of your career in the legal profession,why did you feel the need to buy back the family farm, when the obvious thing to do, would be to put as much distance between you and the family.
Are you trying to teach them a lesson?

Good question.

This place isn't the family farm, it's one I bought myself. My brother took a minority share in it, for (on my part) sentimental reasons connected with how the family farm was organised. Then Julie bought a nearby place on her own, out of her own money.

When the time came to part company with my brother, he and my father invented a claim on Julie's place, and spent 5 years trying to come up with reasons why we shouldn't pay him out what he was due, but give him that farm instead. Put crudely, he was due £400,000 but wanted a farm valued at £1,000,000. To that end, he and my father lied very extensively, purely to enrich themselves. Had they succeeded, we would have been ruined financially.

Then, when that failed, they bid us up on the forced auction of this place - the auctioneer's valuation pre-auction was £800,000, we had to pay £1,270,000 when the only other bidder was my brother, egged on by my father, and neither had the funds required to complete. They guessed that we'd be pretty keen to buy it back, and exploited that fact to maximise the profit.

Forgiveness? I think I prefer the Taarup...

 

[Baling Hay]

Good question.

This place isn't the family farm, it's one I bought myself. My brother took a minority share in it, for (on my part) sentimental reasons connected with how the family farm was organised. Then Julie bought a nearby place on her own, out of her own money.

When the time came to part company with my brother, he and my father invented a claim on Julie's place, and spent 5 years trying to come up with reasons why we shouldn't pay him out what he was due, but give him that farm instead. Put crudely, he was due £400,000 but wanted a farm valued at £1,000,000. To that end, he and my father lied very extensively, purely to enrich themselves.

Then, when that failed, they bid us up on the forced auction of this place - the auctioneer's valuation pre-auction was £800,000, we had to pay £1,270,000 when the only other bidder was my brother, egged on by my father, and neither had the funds required to complete. They guessed that we'd be pretty keen to buy it back, and exploited that fact to maximise the profit.

Forgiveness? I think I prefer the Taarup...

Why not drop them in it when they put a bid on?

 

[Walterp]

Why not drop them in it when they put a bid on?

That's what all my neighbours think, too...

Trouble is, my brother and father wouldn't just have conceded their inability to complete - there would have been more pressure tactics, and youngest brother (the superficially charming one) already has prison time for arson with intent to endanger life: it would have been a further, risky, slog to get to the outcome.

What would have been the outcome? Well, once completion failed it'd have to have been another forced auction, wouldn't it? And no one could prevent them putting in another bidder. Once they knew how far we could go, a second auction would only have had the same result as the first, plus we'd have incurred tens of thousands of additional legal costs.

The only other option was to just take our share fixed by the first auction, leaving my brother the leavings. I'd warn anyone against taking this course without a great deal of thought - we'd done our sums on doing this, and buying a farm in the Scots Borders instead, as there were plenty of farms available at better prices. BUT fast forward a twelve-month (the time it might have taken to achieve a second forced auction) and - hey presto! - those reasonably-priced farms have jumped up another coupla hundred thousand, whilst our 'share' would've been fixed by the result of the first auction in Spring 2013.

Add in the Stamp Duty (£60,000 on a £1,200,000 place, £100,000 on a £2,000,000 place if we'd sold up completely) and it wasn't such a straightforward decision. Especially when you're dealing with sociopaths.

But I'd have loved to have done it, all the same.

 

[caveman]

Should of thought your auctioneer would of vetted ability to pay and seen bank authentication of such from prospective bidders and only took bids from those vetted, up to their limits.
I think that's what happens around here anyways.
Usually posted as conditions in catalogues.

 

[caveman]

From what you have disclosed already, I am assuming that "they" were due 40% of the hammer price anyways and maybe the truth is that you really couldn't be sure as to whether or not they had obtained a line for the other 60% or had it squirreled away somewhere?

 

[multi power]

@Walterp why oh why did you ever let them get involved in the first place ? ? ?

 

[Walterp]

Should of thought your auctioneer would of vetted ability to pay and seen bank authentication of such from prospective bidders and only took bids from those vetted, up to their limits.
I think that's what happens around here anyways.
Usually posted as conditions in catalogues.

That's what we wanted, but it wasn't possible.

There's very little, if any, qualification goes on in this region - I've never seen a case, although I've heard that Welsh agents are beginning to do this with private treaty sales - you put your bank letter/proof of finance in with your offer. I'd suggest that that marks the land price peak in a boom, but I've been wrong before (witness S W Scotland in 2013 as against 2014) so I'll shut up about that.

 

[Walterp]

From what you have disclosed already, I am assuming that "they" were due 40% of the hammer price anyways and maybe the truth is that you really couldn't be sure as to whether or not they had obtained a line for the other 60% or had it squirreled away somewhere?

Sadly, I was pretty sure of the situation - but, as in lots of cases in life, knowing what's what, and taking advantage of it, are quite different things.

Everyone must know farmers who've said 'if I'd had been able to raise the money, I'd have bought such-and-such 'cos it's a bargain...' - and it usually is.

 

[Kevtherev]

I'd have washed my hands of them if it was my family.
Taarup mower too bloody good.
Some people eh?