NFU Legal Health Check Service

Speak to a specialist solicitor at our law firm in North Yorkshire.
Learn about Farm Resilience Planning here. 

Get in touch

Speak to a specialist solicitor at our law firm in North Yorkshire. Learn about Farm Resilience Planning here.

Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors is one of two legal panel firms for the NFU Northeast region. Our farm planning solicitors and rural lawyers are experts in rural law and can help you to identify concerns or legal matters that may need to be addressed when drawing up a farm resilience plan.

Get in touch for more information.

What is a farm resilience plan?

A farm resilience plan is an important way to review your business and get guidance and support for any processes or documentation you have. A farm resilience plan can assist you in recognising and preparing for business risks associated with farming.

NFU legal health check service breakdown

The NFU in conjunction with its Legal Panel Firms is pleased to offer NFU Farmer & Grower members an entirely free initial Legal Health Check in relation to their farming or growing businesses.

This service aims to help identify and highlight any potential issues, legal gaps or other matters members might want to address to help secure their farming, growing or diversification businesses.

The NFU Legal Health Check can also significantly help underpin business resilience. During the current unprecedented changing times with the future implementation of the Agricultural Transition Plan, Environmental Land Management Scheme, and Lump Sum Payments to name a few.

Matters covered in the initial free health check could include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

  • Property matters (including ownership, tenancies, and land registration)
  • Estate planning (including Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Trust Deeds etc.)
  • Business structures
  • Share farming
  • Contract farming
  • Rights of Way (including Section 31(6) applications)
  • Succession planning
  • Employment
  • Diversification

What does the service include?

  • The service will include an initial free discussion with members, either on the farm or virtually, as agreed with the NFU Legal Panel Firm. The process may start with the completion of an online questionnaire to help understand the nature of the business and identify the likely issues to be considered. This will be followed by the creation of a simple report with any initial observations and/or recommendations.
  • NFU Members who then wish to take forward any recommendations identified at the report stage can then agree on the scope and cost of any work to be carried out directly with the NFU Legal Panel Firm concerned.
  • The terms and conditions for the Legal Health Check will be under the firm’s usual T&Cs***.

Please feel free to contact our rural lawyers for more information on NFU legal health check service and farm resilience plan.

How much does an NFU Legal Health Check cost?

The initial NFU Legal Health Check Service is free and is designed to provide members with a report that highlights any concerns or legal matters that need to be addressed. Should any work be identified and subsequently commissioned, then that piece of work will be carried out at the firm’s standard hourly rates (with a 12.5% NFU discount applied). Alternatively, it may be possible to agree a fixed fee directly with the firm before any work is done.

How to get your NFU free legal health check?

Do you want a free initial legal health check review from one of Yorkshire’s leading businesses? To start the process, simply email Amy Clarkson at our Malton office to request the Legal Health Check questionnaire, fill in some key details and return it to Amy and our team will be in touch. The questions are to assist in highlighting the areas within your business you might want to raise with us ahead of the discussion or meeting.

LAS Special Offer for NFU members

If, following the Legal Health Check, NFU members who subscribe to the Legal Assistance Scheme (LAS) wish to commission the Legal Panel Firm to make the Section 31(6) deposit, they can apply for a financial contribution of up to £250 towards the costs*. This offer is currently available at this time subject to any changes in offer and timescale by the NFU. The NFU believes this offer is a fantastic benefit for our members and could help to avoid claims that public rights of way have been acquired over your land through a period of use in the future.

*Special offer is currently available at this time subject to any changes in offer and timescales by the NFU - NFU members who subscribe to the NFU Legal Assistance Scheme can apply for financial assistance of up to a maximum of £1,000 for four sets of instructions (at £250 each) generated by the Legal Health Check. Normal LAS rules apply.

LAS subscribers are entitled to assistance of £250 each for up to 4 pieces of work carried out by our firm under the Legal Health Check (including the s.31.(6) declarations if any, which count as one of the available four Legal Health Check pieces of work LAS can contribute to).

How is the service accessed?

  1. NFU Members should call NFU CallFirst on 0370 845 8458 for a free initial discussion with an NFU specialist adviser who will then refer you to the appropriate Legal Panel Firm in your area.
  2. The NFU Legal Panel Firm will get in touch with you to have a free initial discussion. In some cases, you may also receive an online questionnaire from the firm to start the process. The questions are to assist in highlighting the areas within your business you might want to raise with them ahead of the discussion or meeting**.
  3. The NFU Legal Panel Firm will arrange a visit or a virtual discussion as appropriate and agreed with you. This will result in a brief outline report being produced to agree the areas identified that require some work to be carried out to put things right within the business.

Listen to Ian Barnard, Director and Head of Company Commercial at Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors, explain the benefits of the scheme and how it works for NFU North East members in this recording from the Business Resilience virtual event in October 2020 (you will need your NFU login details to access the recording).

To start the process, simply complete and return the Legal Health Check questionnaire to Amy Clarkson at our Malton office.

 

** Initial free review of your property, business and family interests to assess your position. This may include a farm visit and if necessary a simple written report with initial observations /recommendations at no cost to the NFU member.

*** NFU member will be subject to our firms terms of business. The advice we give will be bespoke and tailored to your needs.