The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2014 - Issue 35 | Page 16

FARM NEWS

TFA URGES tenant farmers in
England: Check CAP Entitlement
Clauses in Farm Tenancies
The Tenant Farmers’ Association is
urging all English farm tenants - and
particularly those with Farm Business
Tenancies ending this year - to check
their agreements carefully for clauses
which might affect their ability to
hold onto entitlements for CAP
support payments.
TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn
said: “DEFRA made the right decision
to allow existing Single Payment Scheme
entitlements to form the basis for creation
of the new Basic Payment Scheme
entitlements at the beginning of next year.
In various ways, however, landlords have
attempted to use contracts of tenancy to
snatch entitlements away from tenants
for little or no compensation at the end of
those agreements.
“Having looked carefully at a large
number of agreements which purport

to be able to allow the landlord to take
entitlements, there are many where the
clauses simply do not work and tenants
are able to retain their entitlements. Sadly,
however, we have also seen clauses
which do provide landlords with the ability
to remove entitlements from tenants. Each
tenancy agreement must be looked at
individually,” said Mr Dunn.
BEST PRACTICE IN
TENANCY CONTRACTS
Concerned to ensure fairness as
between landlords and tenants, the
Tenancy Reform Industry Group, which
is made up of farming, land owning and
professional bodies, in 2004 drew up
guidance as best practice in drafting
contracts of tenancy. Specifically it said:
There are good reasons for parties to a
current or prospective contract to be fair
in their dealings, both in their interests and
in the wider interests of the landlord and
tenant sector. In this respect, it would be
unfair if the individual to whom entitlement
had been allocated were required by a
clause in the agreement to give it up for
little or no consideration in comparison to
its value.
At the end of the tenancy, the tenant
should be able either to retain control of
the entitlement allocated to him for use
against other land or pass it to his landlord
or a nominee for fair compensation.
“Even in cases in which contractual
clauses allow a landlord to acquire the

entitlements, we would ask all landlords
to abide by this best practice. Tenants
should, though, be aware that this is not
legally binding,” Mr Dunn explained.
The TFA says it has been disappointed
that, despite this cross industry guidance,
some landlords, including The Crown
Estate, have insisted on enforcing unfair
clauses to remove entitlements from
tenants for no compensation.
“It is very sad that a landlord such as
The Crown Estate is using its d