We made it!

Thanks for that Enks, very interesting.

I wonder what would happen if you bought a house that has been there for years and has an Agricultural Restriction in place but never got around to doing the agriculture?

I wonder what exactly the planners would do?

As you can get the AOC without proving in a very extensive way that you are actually an agricultural business, it would be extremely difficult.  This is why we spent 2 years living in a large mobile home (with three small children) so that they could see the accounts.  Then there were various reports that we had to get prepared.  However, agriculture has changed beyond all recognition since we did all this back in 1989 and what was a profitable (and hugely enjoyable) back then turned into a financial money pit in 2012, hence we closed the doors.  We were very sad to do this as we were one of the first free-range eggs units in the whole of the UK to gain Freedom Foods Accreditation

Yes, very sad that you had to give up such a worthwhile occupation, Enks.

My point about the Ag Restriction though is.......if you bought a house and land that's been there for years and has such a restriction - who do you have to tell about your agricultural ambitions to enable you to buy it? And what happens if, after you move in, you never quite get around to doing anything agricultural?

IanH - As far as I am aware you don't have to prove to anyone at the time of purchase that you will be continuing in Agriculture.  However, if you need any kind of mortgage you will certainly struggle to find one, and you should be aware that if you are breaking the terms of the restriction you could potentially find that the council could come after you and make you demolish the house at your own expense if you don't meet it.  In reality this would be unlikely as in all the 25years we lived in our house no-one from the council ever came round and asked to see either the books or the livestock.  As I said before an AOC can knock the value of the property, although when we were in the Cotswolds last year (lovely little CL just outside Stow on the Wold) the owners said they had a similar restriction and in places like that it did'nt knock the value at all.  Leaving the farm is a huge change of lifestyle for us, but keeping chickens meant going away was difficult - you could never go away at Christmas and at certain points in a flock's life you would never dream of leaving them.  More time spent in the van and now that we are getting our heads around a house that is about half the size (its still big - 4 bedrooms - one of which has been "adopted" for OH's hobby of building RC aeroplanes) we are looking forward to the next phase of our lives.  IanH if you are thinking about buying a property with an AOC then get some really good legal advice, because remember you may have to sell it on at some point. 

Thanks Enks.....that is sound and really useful advice.

Enjoy your new found freedom! 

Well done the Enks- rather you than me- has to be one of the worst experiences in life- moving! 

We have no intention of moving for a good few years.  The only moving I really like is going off for an adventure in the caravan!

A few years ago a 76 year old farmer acquaintance in the Yorks Dales, (third generation on same farm), having recovered from losing his entire flock to foot and mouth, wanted to retire from his 200 acre sheep farm and his son, d-in-law, and 2 kids to take over. They applied for planning permission to convert a barn to housing so that his son could live on the farm instead of a rented flat 11 miles away.

The planning people refused but offered him a grant towards the cost of conversion to holiday flats.

The sheep have been sold, meadows are weedy, hedges overgrown, fallen trees are left, stone walling is unrepaired, machinery lies rusting and gates are falling off.

That'll keep the visitors coming.

How very sad.  Farming today (not agri-business, which is a very different kind of beast) is a sad thing these days.  Some people do it for the love NOT the money.  We would still be there had we been able to keep our heads above water, but subsidsing the supermarkets was something we were not prepared to do. 

Well said, Enks.