I am 36 years old, married with a young family, and have farmed the family farm since leaving agricultural college.

It is difficult to talk to my parents about handing over the farm to me, but the unwritten understanding is that it will be left to me in my parents’ will.

I am worried that the farm will not be left to me. I have five siblings who are not farming. How can I ensure that my future is secure?

Firstly, you should speak with your parents, to try and establish that they have drawn up wills leaving the farm to you. If they do not have wills drawn up, they should attend to this as soon as possible.

You are not legally entitled to see a copy of their wills at this stage, but given the commitment you have made to the farm over the last number of years, it is a reasonable request that you be shown a copy of their wills.

However, even if you are furnished with a copy of your parents’ current wills, they can change their wills at any time in the future, without your knowledge.

If your parents have not made wills, should one of them die, the surviving spouse will be entitled to two-thirds of the deceased parent’s assets, while the other one-third of the assets will be divided among you and your siblings in equal shares.

If there is no surviving spouse, the entire estate will be left between you and your siblings in equal shares, in the event of the deceased not having made a valid will.

You also need to establish who owns the farm. Is it owned by your mother or father or both? If the property is held jointly, the land falls outside the will. If the title is a land registry title, your solicitor can conduct a land registry search to check the position.

Should one of the joint owners die, the land would automatically pass to the surviving joint owner. In that scenario, it will be the surviving joint owner’s will that will dictate who will become the ultimate owner.

Another matter which you should check is whether the will provides that you are entitled to inherit the basic payment entitlements, livestock, plant, machinery etc. Unless this is specifically provided in the will, those items will fall into the residue, which could be left to all the children equally.

The law provides certain rights to a spouse, regardless of what is in someone’s will.

A spouse is entitled to a one-third share of the other spouse’s estate, if they have children. This is known as the Legal Right Share. A surviving spouse also has a right to require that the family home and household contents be included in his or her share.

Children are not automatically entitled to any part of their parent’s estate, but they may apply to court if they feel that a parent has failed in their moral duty to make proper provision for them in accordance with a parent’s means.

The onus is on the child to prove to the court that the parent failed in their moral duty to make adequate provision for them.

An alternative course of action that you may have, in the event that you do not inherit the farm, is a claim for promissory estoppel. In order to succeed in such a claim, you would have to be able to prove the following:

1. You were given a clear assurance that you would be given the farm on your parents deaths.
2. That you reasonably relied on that assurance over an extended period of time.
3. That you acted to your detriment both in terms of labour and expenditure on the strength of that assurance.

If these elements of assurance, reliance and detriment are present, the usual remedy will be that the property will be transferred to the claimant, if the court views the reliance to warrant a claim in all the circumstances.

In these types of cases, oral evidence is critical, and your credibility in giving evidence.

It will not be possible to predict the outcome with certainty, and there is the question of costs, if the claim does not succeed.

Obviously, it is in everyone’s interest to ensure that conflict would not arise in relation to either of your parents’ wills and accordingly, you should impress upon them the importance of ensuring that their wills leave the farm pass to whom they intend to leave it to.

It is critical, and can save a great deal of worry, hardship and money, if all parties could sit down and discuss the future of the family farm in an amicable and open manner.