Rural Property and Countryside Matters

A farm business tenancy allows a rural landlord and tenant, either an individual or business, to negotiate the rental of all or part of a farm for trade or business, the parties can agree their own rent levels, decide when to have rent reviews and are governed by the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995.

If you are looking for solicitors who make the process smooth, efficient and as informative as possible, give us a call and have an initial chat with one of our specialist solicitors who will be more than happy to assist.

The land you own may have been in your family for many generations and if it hasn’t changed hands or been mortgaged since 1990, your property may not be registered at HM Land Registry.

Registering the title to the land at the Land Registry has a number of advantages including:

• provides an opportunity for any anomalies that might need to be sorted out with the title that would have remained undiscovered;
• saves time and reduces costs on subsequent dealings with the property;
• offers a title guaranteed by the Land Registry
• provides better protection against claims of adverse possession or ‘squatters’ rights’;
• reduces the amount of paperwork that needs to be retained;
• Land Registry registration fees are significantly lower; and
• reduces the risk of deeds being lost and found.

A grazing licence can provide a very useful way to provide short-term revenue from a piece of land while ensuring you can easily take back possession when the licence period is over.

Fishing leases allow a landowner to grant fishing rights to individuals or clubs for a fixed term in exchange for an annual licence fee. The licence normally gives the holder other rights, such as to drive over and park on the landowner’s property. A fishing licence can also specify that fishing is allowed only on certain days and between fixed hours.

Rural businesses can benefit from a broad spectrum of advice from Employment, Land Law, Corporate and Trust Law. Many rural businesses are family concerns established over a number of generations and can have the complications of wider family involvement. These can require particular business structures and succession considerations for the longer term.

We can advise you regarding the whole range of structures and work closely with your other advisers, (i.e. your accountant and land agents) to get the right framework for your business.

We provide in depth advice and assistance with all landlord and tenant matters. Our experience includes granting leases (both on behalf of the landlord and tenant), assignments of existing leases, underletting of commercial units, licences for alterations. We have a great deal of experience in negotiating and agreeing leases. Please call and have an initial chat with one of our specialist solicitors who will be more than happy to assist.

We understand that owners of rural land will be thinking about diversification and a mobile phone mast or other telecoms equipment on your land could be an option.

If you are already leasing your land to a telecoms operator it is likely to be under the old code. The new Electronic Communications Code (“ECC”) came into force on 28 December 2017 and it was promised to change the dynamics of the relationship between landowners and the providers of electronic communications services (operators). The aim of the ECC was to provide operators with greater flexibility and increased rights to install apparatus in, over, and under land (“the Code Rights”) and was introduced due to the growth in the mobile phone industry and demand for network expansion.

The changes the ECC introduced included the ability for operators to share the site with another operator, assign their lease, or upgrade the equipment all without the landowner’s consent. The ECC also changed the valuation basis of telecoms sites – moving from a valuation assessed on an open market basis to a ‘no scheme’ basis. The ‘no scheme basis’ review disregards the existence of the telecoms leases and the associated Code Rights within its calculation. Instead, the site is valued on its worth to the landowner only, rather than the value to the operator, which in practice could present a substantial financial difference in the rent recoverable by landowners and prove highly beneficial to operators.

When it comes to terminating an agreement you require an order of the Lands Tribunal before you can oblige the operator to remove their communications equipment from your property.

We act exclusively for landowners and not operators and our experienced commercial property team are able to provide advice on all aspects of property-related issues, working closely with other specialist surveyors to provide a complete service.

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Employment law, which encompasses all the legal rights and liabilities that may arise within the workplace, applies to rural business like any other. This can be anything from contracts of employment through to dismissal, discrimination and equal pay. It extends beyond employer and employee as it can cover the self-employed, contractors and other categories of workers.

Like it, or not, disputes are a fact of life and we are well aware that, in the rural sphere, the parties may be neighbours or family members. So matters have to be dealt with in a way that not only achieves the best possible outcome for our clients but is also mindful of the parties’ relationships and the long lasting effects that such actions can have.

Whilst our primary aim is to achieve a resolution as quickly as possible without having to resort to the court or tribunal, we appreciate that at times, litigation is inevitable. We thoroughly explore the options available to our clients to formulate a plan of what action will be taken in your particular case and spend time explaining what is involved and exploring possible alternative methods of dispute resolution if appropriate. If court, tribunal or Land Registry Adjudication action is the right option, then you can rest assured that you will be guided through it every step of the way and we will apply our expertise to get you the best possible result.

If you would like to discuss any issue you might have please do not hesitate to contact our dispute resolution team.

Our team of solicitors are able to provide you with substantial and professional advice regarding commercial property development transactions. We have experience in acting for developers and buyers of all shapes and sizes. We are able to assist with conditional contracts, including those subject to planning permissions, site acquisitions and can advise throughout all stages of the development process. We will work within your objectives and timescales in order to achieve the desired outcome. If this is area in which we can help you, please give us a call and we can discuss this further.

We are experts when it comes to creating all types of trusts, from discretionary trust to life interest trust.

Owning and managing a landed estate, whether the property has been in your family for many generations or acquired more recently, presents a wide variety of legal and commercial issues that we can help you with.

The modern landed estate often involves far more than simply owning rural property. It may be run as a highly commercial business with activities ranging from farming, property letting and development, sporting and commercial interests to agricultural holdings, tenancy structures, farm contract and share farming agreements, and diversification. We have the skills to advise on all these matters.

Looking after these issues requires a specialist team of landed estate lawyers, and our company & commercial, commercial property, and private client teams are here to provide advice to landowners, trustees (including Settled Land Act trustees) and their professional advisers.

Landed estates often own heritage assets of artistic or historical importance. These may be buildings, works of art or collections of furniture or porcelain.

We advise on taxation, ownership and succession issues, and on maintenance funds, to help preserve heritage property for future generations.

Many landed estate owners face difficult tax and succession issues. We can help you minimise the payment of capital taxes and advise on long-term strategic estate planning to ensure the transfer of assets to the next generation.

We understand that your property or business is something you have worked hard to build and maintain for you and your family. When the time comes for you to take a step back, you need to ensure that your business can continue to grow and that your legacy is secure. Our private client team offers a wide range of expertise including:

• succession planning, such as lifetime gifts and Will drafting; and
• inheritance Tax mitigation and advice.