Hi,
Not sure if I am posting in the right place but this seemed the closest match and wondered if anyone could help?
I am prospectively purchasing a bungalow which also has an amount of land, approximately 15 acres. Half is pasture and half is woodland.
It is a registered smallholding as the current owner has a few old sheep running around.
My solicitor was aware that the property also had land.
The solicitor has received the pack from the vendor's solicitor and has contacted me saying they can see this is an agricultural purchase, not a purchase of a domestic property with land, and that as our intentions are to use the land for business purposes that it would need to be dealt with by an agricultural conveyancer.
At no point did I say the land would be used for business purposes as we have no such intention at all. Neither is it currently used for business purposes. Our plans are only to have a few pet animals (such as a couple of goats and ponies). I thought maybe the solicitor was confused due to it being a registered smallholding, but obviously everyone has to register if you keep animals, no matter for what reason.
When I explained this the solicitor now says even if we aren't using it for business, the land has an agricultural use, and it should be dealt with by someone with knowledge of this.
I have looked up what agricultural conveyancing is for and it covers sale and purchase of farmland and agricultural buildings, agricultural ties, shooting and fishing rights, forestry etc. This is not what we are looking at.
Our purchase is for a residential property; a home. The land is additional to this. If I was just buying some land and an agricultural barn that was on it I could understand. In those cases it states even if you don't intend to farm the land you need an agricultural conveyancer, which makes sense, as there's no residence. But this isn't the case for us - we're buying a home!
Has anyone any experience of this agricultural conveyancing that can shed any light at all?
Thanks.