Zoë Atkinson Senior Associate

Zoë is a senior associate in the real estate team and specialises in agricultural property.

She acts on sales, purchases, mortgages and leases of agricultural and rural property for farmers, individuals, landed estates and investment clients. She negotiates overage and development clawback agreements and advises on protecting and enforcing them.

Zoë has extensive experience of Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies and Farm Business Tenancies, including implementing complex deals for the surrender of agricultural tenancies in exchange for cash consideration, the transfer of land or the grant of a new lease.

She acts on the grant of agricultural, residential and commercial leases in a rural context and advises on estate management matters, such as restrictive covenants, easements and other issues relating to the ownership and occupation of rural property, including Entitlements and agri-environmental schemes.

Zoë is a member of the Agricultural Law Association and spoke on agricultural tenancies at the 2017 and 2020 conferences of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV).

• Acting for The Crown Estate on numerous high value farm sales, including the disposal of several farms from the same estate, that often involve existing agricultural tenancies, clawback/overage arrangements and coordination with lawyers for several buyers and funders.
• Completing a farming client’s purchase of a 620 acre farm for nearly £5 million within 30 days of instruction.
• Acting for trustees on the sale of an estate of c. 3000 acres, including arable land, woodland and various residential and commercial properties, for over £40 million.
• Advising a large landowning organisation on an estate purchase involving simultaneous sub sales of part, fulfilling a co-ordinating role between seller and sub purchasers.
• Acting for a landowner on a complex agricultural and commercial tenancy restructure and transfer to facilitate an anaerobic digestion plant.
• Working as part of a cross-departmental team on the sale of the Co-operative Group's farming operation Farmcare for £249 million, including 17,000 acres of land in England and Scotland and rights to farm a further 21,000 acres.
• Acting on the sale of farmland, entitlements and a private water supply system, reserving easements over that system for retained houses and negotiating a long term clawback agreement for the seller to share in development value.
• Acting on numerous agricultural landlord and tenant matters, including complex surrenders and re-organisations of agricultural tenancies in the context of anticipated development and renewables leases.
• Acting for a pension fund on several sales and purchases of agricultural land.
• Advising a local authority on regularising agricultural and residential tenancies on their estate and developing a precedent form of Farm Business Tenancy tailored to their particular requirements.
• Advising local authorities on agricultural real estate issues for a highways scheme, in the context of a proposed CPO, including negotiating option agreements and transfers on several sales prior to CPO.