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TractorGuy · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

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 · Aug 16, 2016

M5farms said:
...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 · Aug 16, 2016

CCWKen said:
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 · Aug 16, 2016

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.