Agricultural Conveyancing
(Buying and Selling Farm Land and Agricultural Buildings)
Farm land and other agricultural buildings, like barns and stables, can prove attractive investments. Even if you’re not planning on farming yourself, you’ll need a specialist property solicitor to handle the legal aspect of buying and selling this type of land. The legal process is known as Agricultural Conveyancing (also known as Farm Conveyancing).
How much does it cost?
The average Conveyancing fees on a residential property is around £850, but Agricultural conveyancing isn’t as straightforward as residential conveyancing, so expect to pay a lot more for this service. Each transaction is vastly different, expect to pay at least £1500.
Agricultural Conveyancing Process
The conveyancing process for the sale and purchase of rural land frequently raises some technical problems, it can be a minefield with legislation, unregistered land, grants and tenancy problems.
If you’re using the land for future farming or taking over active farm land, you might have to deal with transferring employees and contracts for plant and machinery.
You’ll need a specialist Agricultural property solicitor to help you structure the transaction to avoid tax and other problems. They’ll also need to be familiar with agricultural legislative developments including:
- Single Farm Payment
- Land Registration Act 2002
- Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
- Hunting Act 2004
- Commons Bill 2006
When purchasing Agricultural land or property, you might require an experienced solicitor to advise you on some matters that are unique to agricultural land. For example:-
- Agricultural tenancies and Letting
- Commercial letting
- Farm building planning, development and diversification
- Contract farming and Farming partnerships
- Fish farming and Fishing rights
- Holiday lets
- Shooting rights
- Telephone masts, Pipe lines and Power lines
- Public rights of Way, Footpaths, Byways and Bridleways
- Protected forestry and woodland
Agricultural Property and Land Searches
Before purchasing agricultural land, it’s important that you have a clear understanding of any environmental risks and legal matters that might affect your purchase.
That’s where an Agricultural Search comes in. Like a normal Property Search, it checks the land and surrounding areas for any potential issues that might affect the property value.
An Agricultural Search gives essential insight for farming sites history and indicates the land’s potential productivity. This includes the past and present land use, topography checks, land use classifications and more. It’s essential that’s these checks/searches are made before proceeding with a purchase of a farm / agricultural land.