Land to rent Scotland

LAND LEGAL LEASE CHOICE BUILDS CASE FOR REFORM

The Land Court’s present announcement of the decision to increase the rent on a Roxburghe Estate farm has actually bitterly disappointed Scottish tenant farmers . Just as before the Scottish appropriate system and tenancy legislation has actually failed in the environment of a viable farm lease.

Commenting on instance, STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said: “The Scottish Land Court’s decision to correct the rent for John Elliot’s Roxburgh Mains Farm on the Duke of Roxburghe’s Estate at £48, 982, a dramatic enhance of over 78%, will deal a devastating blow to Scotland’s tenanted industry.

“Furthermore, in an inaccurate statement into press, Roxburghe Estates have actually inferred your case ended up being impacted by the STFA appropriate insurance plan. But STFA can make sure John Elliot had not been covered by any insurance coverage system which may have supplied help for legal charges, and therefore insurance considerations had no part to play within the decision never to settle out-of courtroom. Additionally, the inference that STFA has reinforced this also Land legal cases is wholly unfounded.

“STFA do run an insurance policy offered to people; it is not designed to motivate renters to pursue an incident through the Land legal, but does offer some safeguard and evens the balance of energy between landlord and tenant.

“within circumstance, confronted with altering demands from his landlord, deciding a rent of court was not an option and John Elliot had no option but to defend their passions through process of law. The wait in reading the actual situation resulted through the contract from both functions to cist (wear hold) the way it is pending the 2012 Land legal choice in the Moonzie rent review situation.

“In making their decision, the Land Court has actually focused virtually solely regarding evidence of just one open market permitting and reached a yearly lease, which in their particular words ‘could not be sustained by any budgetary evidence’. Following the rigid legal definition of the open market test as set-out by Lord Gill inside the ruling on Moonzie situation, the Land legal have driven advisor and ponies through the advice and thinking provided by different expert practitionerss in light associated with the Moonzie instance such as the recently published SAAVA ‘Practitioners Guide to Scottish lease Reviews’, which emphasises the requirement to make certain that a farm lease is viable by mention of the farm budgets alongside settled rents.

“Despite other present long and costly Land legal cases on rent reviews, the procedure stays extremely unsure both for parties. If a tenant such as John Elliot, himself an knowledgeable and respected farm arbiter with experience of performing lease reviews, can fall foul of the system then there's small a cure for the others of Scotland’s tenants. This situation demonstrably demonstrates the need for radical change to the legislation governing rent reviews.