The recent Supreme Court judgment in Guest and another v Guest [2022] marks the latest in a long line of farming disputes dealing with the expectations of claimants involved in farming businesses.

What happens when there is a breakdown in a farming relationship? Farming divorces are often far more complex in nature than the typical ‘urban’ or “suburban” divorce.

Nazia Nawaz, Head of Contentious Probate at Ramsdens, has featured on FarmingUK.com looking at the recent rise in the number of inheritance and succession disputes of farming businesses.

There has been several farming disputes before the courts in recent years and the latest decision in the case of Guest v Guest [2019] reminds us of the remedies available to successful Claimants in proprietary estoppel claims.

Prenuptial agreements can be particularly important in farming families. In most farming cases, the farmhouse is the matrimonial home, passed down from generation to generation. Provisions can be included in a prenuptial agreement to protect inherited farming assets (including farmland and machinery) or a party’s interest in a farming business.

In the first instance no they are not! The law in England and Wales concerning dividing assets and liabilities on divorce is exactly the same whether the respective spouses are living in suburbia or the countryside. The starting point or “yardstick” is equality with consideration given to a number of factors in order to help in determining what is “fair”.