NEW regulations come into force in October that will affect agricultural tenancies, but landlords and tenants have only one month from the launch of the new rules to make claims against the other party.

Jeremy Bell FRICS FAAV, Partner and Head of Agriculture at Greenslade Taylor Hunt, discusses the implications of the new legislation.

The “model clauses” apply to agricultural tenancies under the older regime of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 providing the default terms for repairing and insuring fixed equipment on agricultural property. Following a complete review after 40 years of their inception a substantially new set of model clauses is to apply from 1st October 2015 under the Deregulation Act 2015.

Where the liability has inadvertently been transferred between landlord and tenant, either or both have only one month from the bringing in of the law to claim compensation against the other party for previous failure to meet the liability. This means the deadline is 31st October 2015 after which no claim can legally be made by reference to arbitration.

Where no agreement exists in writing and there has been a failure by one party to carry out repairs which have been transferred to the other, a claim can be made by the other side to put into repair.

In order to establish whether either party has a claim against the other, it is essential that a comprehensive review of the tenancy agreement (where written) is undertaken well before the stated deadline.

If the model clauses are used in a tenancy agreement it depends whether the wording includes “as may be amended or modified or replaced by statute” (or words to that effect) as to whether the new model clauses override, in whole or just in part.

Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s rural chartered surveyors have the knowledge and experience to undertake an overview of your tenancy agreement; an exercise which could well turn out to be financially beneficial.

For further information, please contact a member of GTH’s Rural Professional Department at your local office, on 01278 765588 for Somerset, 01884 243000 for Devon and Cornwall, or 01305 268786 for Dorset or visit the website www.gth.net