The whole area of agricultural tenancies is a highly specialised one that requires an in-depth knowledge. At Thrings, our nationally renowned team is expert in this niche area of the law and is one of the few in the country to offer such expertise.
Our expertise covers both modern farm business tenancies (FBTs), as well as those protected tenancies governed by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986. Even though the legislation governing agricultural tenancies has been in place for some time, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about the differences between FBTs and 1986 Act tenancies.
Our expertise includes:
Farm Business Tenancies
- Drafting new FBTs - both short term and long term agreements
- Consideration of existing FBTs including establishing the parties' rights under an agreement
- The impact of the Tenancy Reform Industry Group’s legislative changes on FBTs
- Advising on the Single Farm payment Scheme in the context of FBTs
- The interaction between FBTs and non-agricultural business tenancies (governed by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954)
- Dealing with Stamp Duty Land Tax issues
- Assisting fellow professionals with tenancy negotiations.
- Alternative arrangements including share farming and contracting agreements, profit of pasturage agreements and grazing licences
Agricultural Holdings Act Tenancies
- Advising on existing tenancy agreements
- Preparing and negotiating written agreements to replace existing oral tenancies, including the service of relevant notices
- Advice on succession issues – both in terms of succession planning and on succession applications
- The impact of the Tenancy Reform Industry Group’s legislative changes on 1986 Act tenancies
- Issues surrounding termination of tenancies
- Tenancy disputes – notices to quit, issues regarding the status of tenancies, etc
- Agricultural Land Tribunal proceedings.
- Arbitration proceedings
- The interaction between the 1986 Act and the Single Farm Payment Scheme
- Estate reorganisation
In relation to both FBTs and older tenancies we are often called on by other professionals (including other lawyers) to provide a second opinion.
Single Farm Payment Scheme
Following the introduction of the Single Farm Payment Scheme in 2005, the team has been at the forefront of preparing appropriate clauses for tenancy agreements and advising clients and other professionals on the ramifications of the scheme. Further reforms to the scheme are anticipated over the next few years which again will need to be taken into account when drafting new agreements.
Consequently, we are able to deal with the full spectrum of agricultural tenancy matters from drafting relatively straightforward agreements, through to long-term FBTs, incorporating sophisticated subsidy and rent clauses as well as providing highly specialised advisory work.
Some examples of our work:
Providing detailed succession planning advice to a potential applicant and thereafter negotiating a succession tenancy with the landlord
Defeating at arbitration a notice to quit based upon a notice to remedy
Successfully defending a 1986 Act tenant faced with a Case B notice to quit
Negotiating on behalf of a landlord the surrender of an existing 1986 Act tenancy to be replaced by a new 1986 Act tenancy over an enlarged area – for estate reorganisation purposes
Regularising numerous unwritten tenancies involving different parties and different governing statutes in relation to a sale of agricultural land
