At Morton Fraser we have highlighted clarity as our guiding principle.
This directs the way we communicate, the way we advise, the way we conduct relationships with our clients and the way we are totally transparent and upfront about our charges. This applies to all our services from the straightforward to the more complex.
Read legal insights, our comments on the latest legal updates and articles covering all types of legal queries and scenarios, written by experts from our teams.
A clear future together.
Our rural property experts have extensive experience of all aspects of the purchase and sale of rural properties. We assist clients in buying and selling everything from large landed estates, to commercial woodlands, small cottages and country houses.
James is an accredited specialist in agricultural law and heads our Agricultural and Rural Property team, based in our Edinburgh office.
We also regularly act for borrowers and lenders in the financing of rural property. Our thorough knowledge of the rural property market in Scotland makes us well-placed to assist with your transaction, whatever its nature.
Transacting with rural property can be a complex process – we aim to guide our clients through that process with the minimum of fuss. We will strive to ensure that you are happy with the advice we give, and we will give that advice in a clear and concise fashion. Our relationships with our clients are based on trust and collaboration – we work with you, not for you.
Across our team, we have close working relationships with land agents and other professional advisors in this area. We also work with our colleagues in other departments in the firm, such as planning, asset protection, financing and litigation, which allows us to look at the whole of the matter at hand, providing solutions to all of our clients' problems and not shirking away from or papering over potential trouble spots.
We don't want you to be surprised by the final bill we produce – that's why we will endeavour at the outset of every transaction to provide you with a fixed fee quote to give you clarity and certainty on costs. Where we can't do this, we will provide you with an estimated charge, which we will aim to convert to a fixed fee quote once the scope of the transaction becomes clearer.
It is now a legal requirement for all land in Scotland to be entered onto the Land Register, with the intention for this to be completed by 2024. There is no requirement for owners to voluntarily register their land. Instead, they can rely on the Registers of Scotland to complete the task for them in due course. However, the boundaries of rural land are often complex and the rights (and obligations) attached sometimes unclear, so the option of leaving a third party to determine these for the purpose of land registration may be unattractive. This is where we can help.
Very knowledgeable in the agriculture field’, practice head James Rust at Morton Fraser is experienced in advising on rural property, business structures, and succession planning.
