Tenant farmers warned amnesty clock is ticking

While 12 June, 2020 might seem like quite a long time away, tenant farmers have been warned that the clock is already ticking on the three-year tenant’s improvement amnesty – and were urged to “get on with the job”.

With the first round of “use it or lose it” meetings on the amnesty, organised by the Scottish Government through the Farm Advisory Service, being oversubscribed at virtually every venue, interest in the issue has been running high.

But the key message on this complex topic was simple – while the task of identifying improvements which had not been formally notified to landlords and tracking down supporting evidence might seem daunting, the sooner the process was begun the better.

And the meetings heard that while the onus for initiating discussions on the issue would generally lie with the tenant, there was little point in standing back and waiting to follow on the coat-tails of others.

“While each farm will have its own unique set of circumstances, all the major organisations have signed up to the amnesty and tenants should 0 Bob Mcintosh – happy to act as middle man have nothing to fear by approaching their landlords to take the opportunity to draw up a definitive list of who paid for what,” Dr Bob Mcintosh, the recently appointed Tenant Farming Commissioner, told the meetings.

He said that the code of practice which he had drawn up in association with the main players in the industry set out the manner in which the discussions should be conducted.

“But if you are able to sit down around the kitchen table and reach an agreement which is acceptable to all parties, then that is the best way forward,” said Mcintosh.

Admitting that new legislation was likely to contain a number of grey areas and the possibility of differing interpretations, he said that if particular issues arose, he would be willing to go to the Land Court to get the required legal rulings. He added: “But it has to be said that while I will do my best to address issues which could be defused before they become a major problem, the Land Court has indicated that while it won’t mind seeing me occasionally on such points, it can’t be expected to work this way on every issue.”

He also said that he was happy to act as a middleman if difficult situations arose in negotiations – but stressed that he was not a free mediation service, an arbiter of what was right and wrong or the font of all wisdom on legal issues.

Legal specialist Hamish Lean told the meetings that while it was important to get as much detail as possible on who had carried out improvements, the amnesty was not the time for putting a value on this – as this would only be discussed at way-leave – and the aim was to identify what would qualify for compensation if a tenancy came to an end.

Consultant Martin Hall said that while reaching mutual agreement on improvements was the best way forward, it was crucial that this was also agreed by both parties in writing.