Hertfordshire Estate completes in excess of £10,000,000

Posted 23/05/2016

A mixed asset Rural Estate has just completed following its order for sale and appointment of a Receiver in 2013. The property consisted of over 600 acres of land, plus residential, commercial and agricultural properties.

Despite many complex issues and the appointment of a receiver, the professional team (which included Gerard Smith of Lacy Scott & Knight as the court appointed receiver, Jeanette Dennis of Ashtons Legal and James Watchorn of Sworders Land Agents) were able to maximise the value of the assets in very difficult circumstances.

Following Sworders’ marketing and negotiations the finally agreed transactions consisted of six separate sales which required Ashtons to deal with each sale and the legal representation on behalf of the receiver and in some cases the lenders too.

Jeanette Dennis, specialist agricultural Partner at Ashtons, said: “This was a challenging piece of work, carried out in extremely sad circumstances with the family who owned the property. Issues to be resolved included access and occupation rights and technical and historic land ownership which benefited from the input of seven members of the firm’s Agriculture & Estates team. In addition, we were required to coordinate with various professional firms across the country which resulted in an outcome that the court required for which we are really pleased.”

Gerard Smith, a Partner in Lacy Scott & Knight and the Court Appointed Receiver added: “This was a very unusual case, as normally receivers are appointed on insolvency, but that was not the case here. My firm had been involved in this matter for many years: several attempts were made to reach a family resolution, but ultimately negotiations failed and the shared ownership rules in English law meant a forced sale being ordered by the court. The late Rowland Beaney was appointed as receiver, then myself following his death, to drive the sales process forward in what then become a very difficult and complex process.”

Sworders marketed and negotiated the sale and Senior Associate James Watchorn said: “The Sworders team have been involved with this case for a number of years and following the marketing in a number of lots and a substantial amount of work, we are very pleased to have achieved results that exceeded many expectations and maximised value.”