Farming Structure after Partners death

HuwJ

My brother and Father ran our family small holding farm until my fathers death at the end of last year. Their arrangement was never formally agreed (probably like many others in a similar situation), but the land belonged to my father and it was farmed by my brother who paid bills e.g. insurance, council tax rather than pay to rent the land. They had a joint farm bank account, that my brother mainly ran as my father was elderly, and not involved in the day to day running of the farm.

My brother, my sister and myself are now executors but I am looking for advice on who legally runs the farm now. My brother has chosen to make it difficult to contact him so its usually irregular face to face meetings between the three of us - myself and my sister live too far away to make frequent visits. He doesn't return calls, doesn't  use email etc

The first question is fairly easy I would have thought, but we have received what appears to be conflicting advice from two solicitors as to who runs the farm now 

Scenario A - my brother automatically became a sole trader upon the death of my father in Dec 2022 so he runs the farm himself..

Scenario B - the farm is run by my brother and the executors who are responsible for my fathers half of the partnership, until the point that the will is settled.

These seem to be conflicting, but would it be a bit of both A and B, in that he is now classed as a sole trader, with the executors responsible for my fathers part of the estate until that is divided up ?

There are many other questions that I have such as 

a) who legally owns the animals / equipment (it appears to be a 50:50 split based on one set of accounts that I saw from prior to my fathers death), but how can that be proven

and b) whether executors can see bank statements for the farm account from before and after my father death. (the reason being is that there's a fairly hefty overdraft in place but my brother isn't forthcoming about how or when that was created) 

I would welcome any advice on people who have been in a similar situation. Its complicated enough to get to grips with the basics, while the added complication of an awkward sibling isn't helpful

thanks in advance

tacpot12

I think the situation might be clarified by the bank if they will confirm that the joint account is a business account or a personal account. If it is a personal account, the money in is will have passed automatically to your brother and the executors have no rights to discuss the account any further.

If it is a business account, then the bank will be able to confirm if it is a partnership account or a sole trader account; it should really be a partnership account, and if it is, then the executors can be clearer that they should have access to the bank account and can ask questions about it. 

The question of legal ownership of the animals and equipment would be based on who bought them, and with what money. If the money came from a business partnership account, then it seems clear they belong to the partnership. If the money came from your brother's personal account, they they are his, and similarly if it came from your father's sole personal account, they belong to your father's estate. There is always the possibility that they transfered assets they owned to the partnership at some time, but this should have been done (but was almost certainly not done) in a way that left an audit trail. I think it likely that the animal and equipment belong to the partnership, and would suggest you push this approach unless your brother provides evidence that he and he alone bought the equipment or animals with his own money. 

The Partnership Act says what should happen when a partner dies, and again you should push for this Act to be followed unless your brother can prvoide vidence of a partnership agreement that says something different to what the Act says, UNLESS this is going to cause too much friction.

OutdoorQueen

Are you in the National Farmers Union? They have a legal assistance service.

https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-professional-services/nfu-legal-assistance-scheme-las/

Savvy_Sue

OutdoorQueen said:

Are you in the National Farmers Union? They have a legal assistance service.

https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-professional-services/nfu-legal-assistance-scheme-las/

Even if the OP isn't in the NFU, I'd have thought they would be helpful in pointing towards solicitors with experience in this area. It would be nice to think that wouldn't be needed, but being able to say that you intend to consult solicitors with expertise in farming matters if brother is not more forthcoming may be needed. 

HuwJ

thanks for the replies to post. they are all really helpful and appreciated

Marcon

HuwJ said:

I would welcome any advice on people who have been in a similar situation. Its complicated enough to get to grips with the basics, while the added complication of an awkward sibling isn't helpful

thanks in advance

I suspect quite a lot of people have been in some sort of reasonably similar situation, judging by the number of posts on this board - not necessarily farming, but a situation in which one sibling is disproportionately impacted by the death of a parent.

You've lost your dad; your brother has lost his dad AND his business partner/associate (call it what you will) and is possibly frightened of losing his livelihood. Having said that, your father died nearly a year ago and it seems that matters haven't really progressed at all in terms of sorting out the estate, so you do need to take more decisive steps. If you're getting conflicting legal advice, there's much to be said for asking the two lawyers to talk to each other, without you participating (much harder for someone to back down when a client is listening in...), and asking them to come up with a concerted view. It's a surprisingly effective tactic.