Getting Your Rural Land Ready for a Sale – Part 7: Heads of Terms

By Victoria Sandberg, Partner specialising in Commercial Property and Head of Rural

This is the seventh and final blog in a series about preparing your rural land ready for a possible future sale.

My previous blogs have discussed matters to think about before putting your land on the market. When you decide you are actually ready to sell, I would urge you to have detailed Heads of Terms drawn up by an agent. You will have to pay the agent a commission as and when they find a buyer, but you are likely to get a higher purchase price and a deal that goes through quicker.

The agent will be able to advise you not only on the suggested sale price, but also whether you should consider, for example, overage (or “claw-back”), whether the land should be put up for sale as one lot or (depending on the size) several lots, and other matters that you may not have considered.

I would also strongly recommend that you get your solicitor involved before the Heads of Terms are finalised. It may be that there are issues that we can advise on, and points that we would suggest adding for clarification. As I said in my previous blogs on this topic, if an issue is referred to on the Heads of Terms and therefore the buyer is aware of it, it is less likely to cause complications and a possible price reduction down the line.

This blog was originally intended to form part of Victoria’s talk at Longmores’ annual rural seminar at Knebworth House in March which was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. If you would like to be added to the invitation list for future seminars, please email our Marketing Manager Charlotte.Hastings@longmores.law.

Please note the contents of this blog are given for information only and must not be relied upon. Legal advice should always be sought in relation to specific circumstances.