Lots of farms and/or farmers are heavily debt-laden.
Are you sure that there is enough in the estate to pay the legacy debts and bills
without resorting to selling the farm to raise cash?
Selling farms can be a complex business,
if only because it can be necessary to distinguish
between the business and the residential aspects
for the purposes of tax.
This especially a thing if the farm is still a going concern.
There can be additional complexities.
Sometimes, even if there is only one person working the farm,
the land (and/or the business) can be owned by companies, or trusts,
and is therefore not always and automatically capable of being gifted in a will
in the same way as, say, a boat or a dining setting.
You (really, the executor) should make sure that anyone
with whom the deceased had a forward production contract (such as milk or beef or grain)
is aware of the situation.
My suggestion is to do nothing until the transfer is finalised
(no matter how much pressure you will get from local agents).
Then, once it's yours free and clear, and you have a CT that says so.
you can proceed to sell it.
Each of you should get separate advice about the tax implications of the sale on each of you.
You may care to use an agent and a lawyer from outside the area.
I suggest this because sometimes "the locals" - by that I mean
the local solicitor, the local accountant, and the local Stock and Station Agent,
who all know and work with each other routinely, might be too familiar and too inter-connected to be conflict free.
Are you sure that there is enough in the estate to pay the legacy debts and bills
without resorting to selling the farm to raise cash?
Selling farms can be a complex business,
if only because it can be necessary to distinguish
between the business and the residential aspects
for the purposes of tax.
This especially a thing if the farm is still a going concern.
There can be additional complexities.
Sometimes, even if there is only one person working the farm,
the land (and/or the business) can be owned by companies, or trusts,
and is therefore not always and automatically capable of being gifted in a will
in the same way as, say, a boat or a dining setting.
You (really, the executor) should make sure that anyone
with whom the deceased had a forward production contract (such as milk or beef or grain)
is aware of the situation.
My suggestion is to do nothing until the transfer is finalised
(no matter how much pressure you will get from local agents).
Then, once it's yours free and clear, and you have a CT that says so.
you can proceed to sell it.
Each of you should get separate advice about the tax implications of the sale on each of you.
You may care to use an agent and a lawyer from outside the area.
I suggest this because sometimes "the locals" - by that I mean
the local solicitor, the local accountant, and the local Stock and Station Agent,
who all know and work with each other routinely, might be too familiar and too inter-connected to be conflict free.
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