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[Derrickl112]

.

 

[hosspuller]

Does the new neighbor have a lease ? If yes ... then he has rights.... and you need to address it with the seller and a lawyer

 

[Derrickl112]

To clarify - When I said "he may still have rights"...."He" was to indicate the previous owner. The neighbor does not farm. I edited my first post to be more clear.

 

[roadhunter]

Interesting situation. Call a lawyer ASAP before you do anything else. Getting crossways with a neighbor has long term negative implications that need to be avoided if at all possible IMO.

 

[MF283]

Can you contact previous owner?

 

[ruffdog]

If he leased the land to a farmer and they have a crop on it, they may have rights to it. Depending on the area, even a verbal contract may hold water, even for a multiple year deal.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Your RE broker should have defined who has the rights to the current crop of emblements at the time of the offer.

 

[turnkey4099]

Yes, I can contact the previous owner. He will most likely say he wants to harvest them, But I would like to find out first if he has any legal right to them because I would like to begin preparing the land for grass. By the way, we're talking about less than 5 acres of soy beans.

You need to be asking the professionals who deal with these things. Asking here only gets opinions unless someone posts a link to the 'real deal'.

 

[MF283]

First off, i applaud you for being concerned on the crop right's, most folks would have said it's my land, i'll do what i want.
I'd contact previous owner since you can, might as well hear it from the horses mouth as they say, although 5 acres isn't much, the yield would cover his time/money invested(maybe).

Ronnie

 

[CCWKen]

Read your purchase agreement. They typically have a paragraph similar to that below. If it does and there is no other "agreement", the crop is yours.

The Seller agrees to sell and the Buyer agrees to buy the property located at _____________________________________________, and more particularly described as follows:

consisting of the land and all the buildings, other improvements, and fixtures on the land; and all of the Seller's rights relating to the land.

 

[TractorGuy]

If the previous owner intended to harvest the crop after the sale I am pretty sure that would be spelled out in detail at closing and in your contract.

How long before the crop is ready for harvest?

If it were me and the crop had value, I would let it mature, contract the harvest, and pocket the money.

At tax time I think you can estimate the value of the crop when purchased and deduct that from what you get for it. That difference is regular income or loss if sold less than a year after purchase. At least that's what my CPA did on the trees I sold off recently aquired property.

 

[oosik]

IMHO - turnkey hit the nail on the head. If you want an opinion, ask here. If you want legal advice ask a professional. Joe Blow's opinion, offered on TBN, will not be worth a plug nickel in any legal transaction.

 

[snonut]

Why not just let him harvest his crop, then its over. Do you have the equipment to harvest it yourself? Are you wanting the crop for yourself or just to get rid of it? Not trying to be a smart*ss, but involving lawyers:thumbdown:-----only the lawyers win.

 

[davesl708]

As oosik stated here you get opinions.
In my opinion the terms would have been spelled out in the sellers agreement as what stays with the property and what goes.

If you are in a hurry to get rid of the crops for another reason $75 on a lawyer to review the sales agreement would be cheap and easy.
If not in a hurry talk to the previous owner and see what his intentions are.

 

[CCWKen]

Yeah, and you better see a Tort Law attorney too so when the previous owner comes on your land and gets hurt collecting YOUR crop, he can help your hire a Real Estate layer to turn YOUR property back over to him for damages. Keep the crop or give it to him but get a release for damages and injury. The crop is yours. What you want to do with it is up to you.

I'd like to see some previous owner come on my land and start cutting Mesquite trees down for barbeque chips. Or try to remove the fence he installed. Or try to pump water from the well he installed. Or on and on....

Go blow Joe. A contract is a contract. But you may need more than an eight grade education to understand it.

 

[M5farms]

let me get this straight , You bought a piece of land with soybeans on it and you want to plow them under and start planting grass?? First thing I wonder is why this question never came up before closing being you had first hand dealing with him and saw the beans planted but being this has already taken place I would talk to him and tell him that when he gathers the beans you would like to spread a cover seed and have him disk it in when he is thru. That would be best case scenario for both parties

 

[KubotaToy]

...I would talk to him and tell him that when he gathers the beans you would like to spread a cover seed and have him disk it in when he is thru.

I have done this a few times over years (moved 17 times in 32 years), only run into one turd that cut a wheat crop and did not follow thru. But I did have one framer that went above and beyond by drilling in seed that he purchased for his pasture.

Bottom line, the crop is yours unless spelled out in a contract before purchase.

 

[turnkey4099]

Yeah, and you better see a Tort Law attorney too so when the previous owner comes on your land and gets hurt collecting YOUR crop, he can help your hire a Real Estate layer to turn YOUR property back over to him for damages. Keep the crop or give it to him but get a release for damages and injury. The crop is yours. What you want to do with it is up to you.

I'd like to see some previous owner come on my land and start cutting Mesquite trees down for barbeque chips. Or try to remove the fence he installed. Or try to pump water from the well he installed. Or on and on....

Go blow Joe. A contract is a contract. But you may need more than an eight grade education to understand it.

Others have probably said it but these type sales usually have "who gets the crop" spelled out in the sales papers.

 

[MossRoad]

When we bought our land, it was planted with corn. The owner had an agreement with a local farmer for renting the land. It was specified in the closing that the farmer had the right to harvest the crop when it matured and split the profits with the seller, not us, as that's who the agreement was with. We had no problems with that. The next year, we let him rent from us for a portion of the harvest profit. It only came out to about $35 per acre, but that more than covered the taxes on the land. However, we told him that was the last time we were going to rent it, as we wanted to convert it to forest. We told him this about a year in advance, so he wouldn't plan on purchasing seed/needs for the next year. Only common courtesy for someone that had been farming that land for decades. It worked out O.K.

As for the O.P.'s situation, there should have been something in the contract concerning the crop. Sounds like any conflict will end up being between the farmer that planted it and the seller of the property, not the new owner, but that's just a guess. Best to contact the realtor that did the deal and start the ball rolling to get your ducks in a row before/if it comes to a head.

 

[MossRoad]

BTW, If he gets 40 bushels per acre @ $2.50 per bushel on 5 acres its about $500 total we're talking about.