Patrick Meadows of FonsecaLaw, instructing Sam Aynsley of Nine Chambers, Manchester, has settled a dispute over a South Wales farming estate worth over £1.8 million, at mediation and without proceedings being issued. The farmland itself, valued at about £1.22 million, was the most contentious estate asset. Under the later will our client, who would have inherited the farmland outright under the earlier will, was left only a life interest in it: the right to farm the land for the rest of his days, but not the capital he would need in order to retire.
The case raised the questions that recur in farm succession disputes. When a son has worked the farm for decades on the promise that it would one day be his, has he made out a proprietary estoppel claim, and if so what remedy fits the detriment? Regardless of that, was a later will, made when the deceased was elderly, valid at all? And how is a life interest to be valued against the interests of the remaindermen, when the life tenant is in his late 60s and the farm is his livelihood?
Beneath those questions lay the mechanics. A caveat had been entered at the Probate Registry. The executors held land and income pending a grant. Rights of way and other easements had to be settled so that the farmland could in future be separated from our client's farmhouse, and the boundaries of the whole holding regularised. There was a telecoms lease with accrued rent, a farming partnership interest, and the tax consequences of whatever division was agreed.
Each point was worked through on the evidence before the parties met, so that the day was focused on terms rather than argument. Agreement was reached and documented at the mediation.
FonsecaLaw advises on contested wills and probate, estates, agricultural property and proprietary estoppel claims. If you are facing a dispute of this kind, please don't hesitate to get in touch.