Rural Estates Newsletter Spring 2021 - Flipbook - Page 22
8 – Divorce and the dynastic estate
Finally, it must be fair to hold the parties to the agreement in the circumstances
prevailing at the time of their divorce. So, as a minimum, the agreement must meet the
needs of the weaker financial party.
Mr Justice Munby suggested in P and P in 2004 that a “pecuniary legacy that accrues
during the marriage” should be treated differently to “a landed estate that has been
within one spouse’s family for generations and has been brought into the marriage with
an expectation that it will be retained in specie for future generations”. However, six years
later in D and D, Mr Justice Charles said that there was no special rule “simply because
the relevant assets are, or derive from, gifted or inherited farms or farming assets (or
estates)”. The position in law is not therefore straightforward. Judges want to preserve
their right to give different weight to non-matrimonial property, on a case-by-case basis,
in their overall task of creating a ‘fair outcome’.
The best advice for the landed estate owner is to enter into a pre-nuptial agreement so
that the source of property and its intended treatment is considered before and during a
marriage, not just at the point at which it ends.
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Rural Estates Newsletter
Spring 2021
