Section 117 Claims: When a Child Challenges the Farm Will

Every farm will that leaves the holding to one child is drafted in the shadow of Section 117 of the Succession Act 1965: the provision allowing a child to claim that a parent failed in their moral duty to make proper provision for them. Understanding how these claims actually run — and what makes them succeed or fail — is essential for parents making wills and for families facing a challenge.

The Test

The applicant child must show a failure of moral duty judged from the standpoint of a prudent and just parent, considering: the size of the estate, provision made for the child during the parent’s lifetime, the child’s circumstances and needs, provision for other children and the surviving spouse, and any special factors (illness, disability, contributions to the farm, promises). It is a high bar — parents are entitled to make unequal wills — but it is far from unreachable where a child was genuinely left behind.

Farms Are the Classic Battleground

Farm estates generate a disproportionate share of Section 117 litigation for an obvious reason: the estate’s value is concentrated in an asset that goes to one child. Courts consistently accept that preserving a viable holding justifies leaving it intact to the farming successor. What they scrutinise is everything around that decision: did the other children receive education, sites, help with houses, anything? Was a child with real needs ignored? Did the successor already receive lifetime transfers on top?

Drafting Against the Claim

The best defence is built when the will is made: realistic provision for non-farming children from whatever exists outside the land; documented lifetime provision; and a contemporaneous memorandum of the parent’s reasons held on the solicitor’s file. These are standard features of our farm wills, and they change the litigation risk profile completely. Where the concern is the reverse — a child who worked the farm on promises the will then broke — different claims (proprietary estoppel) arise, and early advice matters just as much.

If a Claim Is Made

These are family disputes with a farm at stake, and most settle — often through mediation, which Richard O’Shea is qualified in. We act for executors defending estates and for children assessing claims, and in both roles the early steps are the same: establish the facts of lifetime provision, assess the estate realistically, and keep the farm operating while the dispute is resolved. See also agricultural land disputes and what happens without a will.