Divorce And The Family Farm

Divorce can be a complicated and highly emotional process, made more complex when a family farm is involved. JCP Solicitors – the NFU Cymru panel firm for Mid and South Wales – is home to leading experts in family and rural law. In this column, Jill Bulteel, a Director and Head of JCP Solicitors’ Family team, shares advice on protecting the family farm during divorce.

Going through a divorce is always an emotional time, and can be a distressing process as you make financial arrangements for the separation. The courts’ starting point for financial arrangements during divorce follows the ‘sharing principle’, meaning both parties are entitled to a fair division of matrimonial assets. Matrimonial assets refer to all assets which were shared during the marriage, such as a home, joint savings, earnings, and shared business interests.

Farms are often treated differently from liquid assets (such as savings), since they are income-producing. The court will prioritise fairness and housing needs above all, especially if children are involved. This means that one party would be able to keep the farm, but may be expected to provide compensation to the other in the form of a lump sum, a property transfer, or a share in other assets such as a pension or savings.

This can be highly complex, and due to the emotional ties that many families have with their farms, it can cause distress. Consulting a specialist Solicitor will ensure you negotiate a fair settlement, allowing one party to keep the family farm while ensuring the other party is compensated fairly. For example, providing a suitable home for the non-farming spouse can help to prevent the sale of the farm.

There are early steps that can be taken to help mitigate the impact of divorce. Setting out a partnership agreement between all interested parties – often siblings and parents of the family farm, alongside the spouses – can demonstrate that only part of the farm is the divorcing spouse’s asset. Placing farms in family Trusts also make them harder to divide upon divorce. Setting up pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements can also be beneficial, as these documents clearly outline your intentions for the family farm in the event of divorce.

For expert legal advice and guidance on how to protect the family farm, JCP Solicitors can help. Contact Jill Bulteel by emailing jill.bulteel@jcpsolicitors.co.uk or call 0333 208644.