Accountant sues mother after quitting job to take over glamping farm

AN ACCOUNTANT who quit her job to take over the family’s glamping business is suing her mother in an inheritance row that a judge compared to King Lear.

Angela Heyes, 48, and her engineer husband Neil, 46, say they moved from the South East to Cornwall in 2014 after being promised they would inherit Mrs Heyes’s parents’ farm, which includes a glamping business with on-site yurt.

But after the death of her father Patrick Holt, a pilot, in 2020, the couple are embroiled a High Court battle with her mother, Sarah Holt, over who owns the family holding near Truro.

The couple say they left well-paid jobs on the promise they would take over the farm. However, Mrs Holt – backed by her other children – is contesting the claim in legal action that could cost about £1million in lawyers’ bills.

The family feud was compared to King Lear by Judge Paul Matthews, who told a High Court pre-trial hearing: “It is a tragedy for all concerned. This is not only because it splits a family, pitting a parent and two children against another child in a dispute about family property, like a modern-day King Lear.”

Angela and husband Neil say that in 2013 there was a conversation with her parents about the 60-plus acre sit. She said: “After that formal conversation, Neil and I, together with our two young children… abandoned our plans in the Guildford area and arranged to move to Cornwall. We bought a house next to the farm and Neil gave up his job and has worked on the farm since 2015.”

Having settled in Cornwall, Angela quit her job with Accenture, the professional services company, in 2019 and took a local job “at a reduced salary of £75,000 per annum”. The case reached court last month after an application by Mrs Holt to end the claim without it getting to trial. She told the court discussions about the farm were always provisional, given the need to set aside money for Angela’s siblings and the possibility of care home fees.

Judge Matthews said the couple’s case was “weak” but rejected Mrs Holt’s application. He urged the competing parties to settle their differences outside court, saying the case could “ruin” Angela and Neil if they lost.