Agricultural holdings in Scotland

Acknowledging the importance of Scottish property practice to our customers we are incrementally developing a new set of content on Scots property law for Scottish practitioners.

Scotland collection

The Scotland collection is a research tool collating guidance on key areas of law that are specifically relevant to Scotland. The collection brings together Scots law content from across a number of practice areas and includes links to Practice Notes, Checklists and Q&As as well as legal articles and analysis on legal issues directly affecting Scotland. See: Scotland collection.

The experts and market standard

The scope and content of the Agricultural holdings in Scotland topic is being developed in collaboration with leading Property experts in Scottish property practice.

Research resources

The Agricultural holdings in Scotland topic provides practical guidance and precedents linking to Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia by multi-contributors including Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Carloway and Professors Kenneth Reid, Robert Rennie and George Gretton and case law resources:

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Session Cases (1821–present)
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Scottish Civil Law Reports (1986–present)
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Scottish Criminal Case Reports (1950–present)
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Scottish Court Opinions (2000–present)
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Scottish Case Digests (2000–present)

Agricultural holdings

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Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: The court held that six declarations of trust (DoTs) executed by the transferor (Mr Dixon) in favour of his wife (Mrs Dixon) constituted transactions defrauding his creditors within the meaning of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) and that two of them, purporting to transfer all his future assets and income to Mrs Dixon, along with an accompanying loan agreement, were shams which were void and ineffective. It set aside the DoTs and ordered Mrs Dixon to restore the value of three transferred properties (which had been converted into £551,589 cash) to Mr Dixon’s trustees in bankruptcy (trustees) together with interest of £101,726. It also ordered an account to be taken of the funds that had been transferred to Mrs Dixon or on her behalf by Mr Dixon over the seven years between the date of the DoTs and his bankruptcy. The court dismissed Mrs Dixon’s defence of change of position to the trustees’ claim for restoration, finding that even if such a defence were generally available (which is unclear), she had not acted in good faith and could not rely on it. It also dismissed her defence that, having been married to Mr Dixon for many years, she was entitled to half his assets and/or an entitlement to a share of them by virtue of a right to be maintained. Written by Jonathan Lopian, barrister at New Square Chambers, who acted for the successful claimants.

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Property Disputes analysis: The Court of Appeal held that a right to manage (RTM) company’s claim notice was invalid because the company failed to comply with section 78(1) of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (CLRA 2002) as it failed to serve an equitable long lessee with a notice inviting participation (participation notice) before serving the claim notice. The Court upheld the Upper Tribunal (UT) (Lands Chamber)’s decision that a tenant of an equitable long lease during the ‘registration gap’ is a ‘qualifying tenant’ within s 75 2002 Act, provided that there is no legal titleholder of that lease. However, the UT had erred in holding that the failure to serve that qualifying tenant with the participation notice did not render the claim notice invalid on the facts of the specific case. Instead, strict compliance is required upon a proper interpretation of the statute, in particular ss 78(1) and 79(2). Written by Sophie Gibson, barrister at Landmark Chambers, junior counsel for the Appellant.