Stately home and landed estate

This matter involved generational planning and has been crucial to the survivorship of a stately home, which has been in our client’s family for over 10 generations.

We took on the estate as a client following the death of the previous owner and successfully negotiated 100% Business Property Relief. Our negotiations with HMRC were complex and even though we were successful, we advised that a restructuring of ownership of the estate would make a claim for business relief easier in the future.

We worked with the family to help diversify the business, which involved obtaining enabling development on the estate to raise funds for repairs and refurbishment, and to develop the property into a thriving conference and wedding venue. We advised on the tax issues surrounding the development to obtain Entrepreneurs’ Relief and ensure as much of the funds were available for reinvestment as possible.

We advised and created a new limited liability partnership (LLP) structure for the trustees to manage the estate in conjunction with the current generation.

We set up a family trust corporation to bring proper corporate governance to the management of the estate and the business, and worked with the family on a constitution to identify the family values and objectives in connection with the estate.

The new structure was reviewed by HMRC on the 10-year anniversary of the trust and we received 100% Business Property Relief.

The restructure has been a complete success, has secured the future of the property and ensured that it can continue to be managed by the family as a business and also to serve as a cultural centre for the local community.