Why Thomson Hayton Winkley?

Which is worse, no partnership agreement or a badly drafted or out of date one? It’s a tough call!  We know you need to get on with your day job and may not want to bother with unnecessary paperwork or expense and how easy it is just to carry on regardless.  After all, things are working well … at the moment.  But what if one of your partners wants to retire, or dies?  Or even worse, what if you fall out?  Having a well drafted and robust partnership agreement in place can go a long way towards providing a framework for dealing with these scenarios if they happen, and we can help you with this.

If there is no written partnership agreement, then any problem arising will fall to be dealt with under the Partnership Act 1890, which as the date suggests was not drafted to deal with the issues facing today’s farmers.   Even where there is an agreement in place, disputes can arise in dealing with interpretation of clauses or simply trying to reach agreement with your former partners about how things are divided up.

Sometimes a partnership might not be the best option for you.  We can look at other structures, such as company formation and can help where contract farm agreements, or share farming agreements are needed.

Working closely with other professionals such as land agents, accountants, valuers and surveyors we are very much part of your team and will look at any partnership agreement you ask us to draft, or any dissolution of partnership as part of the bigger picture to ensure you can get on with what you do best – running the farm!