Get good early legal advice for farming divorces

It is well known that farming divorces can be ‘notoriously difficult to resolve’.

That was the opinion of Mr Justice Wilson, at least, who famously presided over the case of R v R, which centred around a farming business. In fact, Mr Justice Wilson said that particular case was “almost, although I believe not quite, insoluble”, adding: “It is a case where it is far easier to criticise a suggested solution than to devise one.”

On the face of it, there is no difference in law between how a farming business should be dealt with compared to any other business, when it comes to divorce. So the question is: what makes farming divorces so ‘notoriously difficult to resolve’?

Firstly, farming divorces are complex, for reasons that are far too lengthy for us to fully explain here. But one of the frequent issues we come across, at Wilkin Chapman, is the argument that farms represent a non-matrimonial asset that is often intergenerational, sometimes having been owned by one family for hundreds of years prior to any marriage.

As a general rule, divorcing couples are entitled to an equal division of the marital assets. But when it comes to inherited or gifted land that has been in a family for generations, many argue this can justify a departure from equality; after all, so much of a family’s identity and heritage is tied to the land they’ve worked so hard to cultivate that it’s often unthinkable for the farm to be sold or split up as part of a settlement.

Farms are often capital rich and cash poor

- Other problems that often arise in farming cases include:

- Situations where the farm itself is being run and owned by various family members

- The farm, or parts of it, is held in trust

The farm may be the only source of income, which has to meet the livelihoods of various family members

Farmland can be unrealisable, particularly if it is rented out to long-term tenants, and the fact that is it is not always easy to extract funds against the farmland to finance a divorce settlement.

This is because farms are frequently capital rich and cash poor, making it extremely difficult to extract value from the farm while also keeping the farm alive. Indeed, this can often prove to be the crux in most farming cases, requiring a considerable level of imagination and lateral thinking.

It is imperative, therefore, that advice is sought at an early stage from true agricultural experts who are able to understand the unique difficulties that a farming divorce can bring. Failing to do so could mean the end of the farm as well as the marriage.

For further information, please contact James Marsden on 01482 398281, email [email protected] or visit www.wilkinchapman.co.uk/sectors/agriculture-and-food