Landed estates

Whether you hold private rural property, a historic estate open to the public, or newly acquired farms, we can advise you.

We draw teams of solicitors together from across our firm – so no job is too big. We’re proud of our diverse, multidisciplinary team. They work with charitable trusts and companies, private trusts, high net-worth individuals, land consortia and family partnerships.

How we can help

Our team are up to date in all types of law, and can advise you on:

tax and succession planning
business and ownership structures
art, chattels and conditional exemption
events and public access
renewable energy
mineral and sporting rights

agricultural property
real estate disputes
planning, development and construction
commercial property
employees
health and safety

Our experience

We act for over 60 landed estates across the UK. Here are a few recent examples of our private wealth and agricultural lawyers’ work:

we created an estate management partnership to run a family’s residential portfolio which was held in trust, removing the need for the trustees to employ staff
we structured the ownership of development land to cut potential tax liabilities, including giving advice on land pooling
we restructured farm tenancies to get the freeholder 100% agricultural property relief
we’ve helped numerous clients structure their businesses following the decisions in the cases of IRC v Farmer and Balfour to secure 100% business property relief on let residential properties and other investment assets
we advised family trustees on how to manage risk and minimise liability
we secured conditional exemption on a Grade 1 listed mansion, allowing the owner to defer paying inheritance tax while the property remained unsold and accessible to the public in a controlled manner
we partitioned a family estate to make sure it stayed in the same family, but to provide liquidity and independence for a brother who wasn’t involved in running the estate

What our clients say about us

“Mills & Reeve is one of the few truly national private client practices, with well rated teams in several major markets UK-wide.”

Chambers UK

“Thank you for all the help you have given in guiding us through the maze of trusts/selling property with professionalism, courtesy, and understanding. We are really appreciative of your excellent advice.”

A client

“A firm of choice for complex private client matters.”

Legal 500