Family farms: untangling ownership and occupation

Published June 15th 2026

Authors

Jake Rostron

Rachael Beaumont

When it comes to owning or occupying land for farming, there are often multiple legal structures at play. The legal rules that apply to each structure may not be entirely consistent with one another and may even conflict.

It might also be difficult to distinguish between the responsibilities involved in each role that is held, which could lead to tension within the family and the potential for disputes. The overlap between family relations on one hand and legal duties and responsibilities on the other may lead to emotion and anger, especially where one family member is seeking to rightfully protect their own rights, at the purported expense of others.

For example, one farming family may have the following structures:

Limited company: Farming often operates through a limited company, with members of the family holding varying levels of shareholdings.
Partnership: Often, for tax purposes, it is beneficial for a partnership to be formed. Where land is partnership property, the land is held on trust for the partnership and individual partners are beneficial owners. Sometimes this can cause issues on death because partners cannot make specific gifts of partnership property in their wills – they hold an interest in the capital of the partnership and not an interest in the underlying asset itself.
Trust: A trust may be present where a family member has passed away. The surviving members of the family may find themselves appointed as trustee, with various duties and obligations owed to their fellow trustees and the beneficiaries under the trust.
Personal ownership of land: Land could be jointly owned by family members registered as proprietors at the Land Registry. The position is complicated where there are other structures at play because one owner may owe fiduciary duties (such as under the partnership) to another which may make it difficult to pursue some legal options, like an order for sale of that land at court.

Family fallouts

It is not uncommon for disputes to arise when these separate legal entities become intertwined. This is because the family members involved in running each entity and farming the land each entity controls are required to wear different hats – for example, directors of a company owe fiduciary duties to the company, which might conflict with a trustees’ duties to beneficiaries of a trust.

If there is no partnership agreement, it can be unclear if land is a partnership asset or held outside it, and therefore which entity owns it. Where it becomes unclear whether assets are personal, partnership property, or company or trust assets, this can lead to deadlock and ultimately a stagnation of production. It can be necessary
to seek legal advice to break this deadlock and prevent a dispute from worsening.

Where one or more family members pass away, someone outside of the family could inherit their share in either the entity or the land (or both). This has the potential to disrupt the running of the family’s affairs and can lead to disputes. This might also happen where someone does not put appropriate asset protection measures in place when marrying, and a divorce may affect the ownership and control of assets.

In the event of a dispute, family mediation can be a very effective tool, ensuring everyone continues to communicate concerns with one another and an agreement reached in some sort, whether this by way of a buy out of a particular family member, complete dissolution and winding up of the company and partitioning of land.

Conclusion

Seeking legal advice before issues arise can prevent costly consequences further down the line. To reduce the risk of multi-structure family farms from becoming embroiled in disputes, accurate documentation is crucial: partnership agreements, shareholder agreements, trust deeds and letters of wishes should be written, with clearly defined asset ownership and careful succession planning.

Communication across the family is always key, and together with effective documentation can ultimately protect the future of the family farm.

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