Promises Promises Promises – Proprietary estoppel and the case of the Hughes family

In the recent case of Hughes v Pritchard and others the court dismissed a claim brought by the estate of one of the Deceased’s sons despite pre-existing findings that the deceased had promised that son the entirety of his farmland and that the son had relied on the promise. The Deceased Evan Richard Hughes died on 7 March 2017 aged 84 years. He was a cattle farmer with 137 acres of farmland and other property including a family building business. He had three children Gareth, Carys and Elfed; Elfed had tragically taken his own life in 2015. The Deceased had made three Wills in 1990, 2005 and 2016. By the 2005 Will he left his shares in the family business to Gareth and Carys and all his farmland to Elfed; the original trial judge found…

Could your business be named and shamed?

“Retail giants W H Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos are among firms who have been “named and shamed” by the government for breaking the minimum wage law. Almost £5m was found to be owed to around 63,000 workers following investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs dating back as far as 2017. These named employers have been made to pay back what they owed, and in addition were fined around £7m.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/minimum-wage-wh-smith-lloyds-argos-b2361300.html When my colleague sent me this article I was taken aback. How could some of our largest and best-established retailers fall foul of the most basic employment law? The law on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) is not simply about paying a minimum amount per hour worked. In fact, there are common pitfalls which, if breached, can land a business into seriously hot HMRC water. What are the…

Managing child contact arrangements after a divorce on the farm

  Resolving child contact arrangements after divorce is often tricky, but for a farming family where the children may have been actively involved in the business, it can be particularly problematic. When a couple who farm get divorced, one spouse will usually leave the family farm and so it is important to try to reach agreement at the earliest stage about who will get to spend time with any children and when. If the children work on the farm, this may need to be taken into consideration when the child contact arrangements are being negotiated as they may (or may not) want to be involved during busy periods such as lambing or harvest seasons. While agreeing co-parenting arrangements can be challenging for farming families – not least because of the demanding working patterns – there are…

Avoiding pitfalls of unregistered land

More than 85 per cent of land in England and Wales is now registered with HM Land Registry; however large swathes of rural farmland remain unregistered. Land is often farmed by the same family for years and therefore no ‘trigger event’ arises which would require first registration. Here our solicitors explain when it is compulsory to register unregistered land and outlines the benefits and the pitfalls for those who do not. When you should register All land or property must be registered with HM Land Registry if you have: purchased it; been given land or property as a gift; inherited any land or property; leased it for more than seven years; received it in exchange for other property or land; or had it mortgaged. Farmers should be aware that agricultural land must also be…