Agricultural tenancies for farms and cottages

We have one of the largest specialist agricultural teams in the country, with expertise in all legal issues relevant to tenancies of rural properties.

We have years of experience of advising landlords and tenants on all issues arising from tenancies of rural properties. Recent examples of our experience include:

• Assisting Trinity College, Cambridge with the purchase and leaseback of a complex agricultural estate in Nottinghamshire, involving the grant of new FBT's in addition to a development agreement and complexities including historic mining leases.
• Providing detailed advice on the status of agricultural occupiers of farm cottages in connection with the sale of a multi-million pound agricultural portfolio.
• Completing the sale of a farm in Lincolnshire which involved the surrender of an AHA tenancy and the restructuring of a new tenancy, in addition to employment, tax and overage issues.
• Securing the rights of an AHA tenant at an arbitration hearing relating to more than 20 notices to remedy and notices to quit.
• Successfully acting for an Oxford College in forfeiture proceedings on an FBT, on the basis of unpaid rent. 
• Succeeding in disputing the validity of an AHA succession application where the tenant did not satisfy the principal source of livelihood test.

Our clients include a wide range of landlords and tenants of all types of rural properties. Those that can be named include:

• Trinity College, Cambridge
• Farmcare
• Strutt and Parker (Farms) Ltd
• Northumbrian Water
• Christ Church College, Oxford

Updated regularly, our food law blog covers all legal aspects of the food and agribusiness sector.

We have recently published the 4th Edition of Farm Tenancies, a guide to the law relating to the tenancies of agricultural land and cottages.