Time to get compensation settled for tenants - STFA
One of the longest-running disputes between landlords and tenant farmers took a marginal step toward conclusion this week in the Court of Session with a decision that the Scottish Government is liable to compensate a specific group of tenants
The dispute goes back to the Agricultural Holdings Act of 2003 following which a number of tenants moved to a new type of lease. The legislation proved to be defective and a remedial order was passed in 2014 but by this time several tenants had been forced out of farming through the loss of security of tenure.
The ruling this week by Lord Clark states that the government is liable to 0 Angus Mccall: ‘Let’s get this matter settled’ compensate the tenants “for loss directly arising from reasonable reliance upon defective legislation passed by it, which was then remedied by further legislation which interfered with the individuals’ rights”.
However he rejected the tenants’ claims based on the value of the tenancy, only accepting compensation should be paid in respect of specific losses directly sustained by the tenants who had acted in good faith on defective legislation plus something for “for frustration and inconvenience”.
Because the case had been brought to establish the principle of whether or not the tenants were entitled to compensation, Lord Clark said he was not in a position to quantify the scale of the compensation, which would vary according to individual circumstances.
Scottish Tenant Farmers Association director Angus Mccall said it was unfortunate Lord Clark made no mention of the unnecessary suffering caused by the mishandling of the mediation process which did not get under way until it was too late.
“If mediation had been available in the immediate aftermath of the remedial order, when it should have been, it is highly that, some landlords and tenants would been able to reach agreement, with the government stepping in to assist where agreement was not going to be forthcoming,” he said.
“The time must now be ripe for the Scottish Government and the affected tenants to engage in mediation and reach a mutually agreeable settlement which will take away the need to spend yet more time and money in litigation where the only beneficiaries will be the legal profession.
“Let’s settle the matter and let the victims of this long-running tragic saga get on with their lives.”