Landowners warned over mast lease short-termism
Farmers and landowners have been warned not to be railroaded into signing up to new leases for telecommunication masts on their land which could lead to much reduced rental values for the foreseeable future.
A leading firm of property consultants has warned that despite the attractions of substantial oneof financial carrots being offered by some telecom companies to encourage landowners to agree to a deal swiftly, falls in rent and less favourable terms in the lease could often far outweigh short-term cash incentives.
Land agents, Galbraiths has revealed that over recent weeks mobile phone operators have been urging farmers to commit to lease renewal terms for existing mast sites on their properties - in advance of a pending Scottish Land Tribunal decision set to be made this month which could prohibit the contract terms being proposed.
“The mobile operators are offering significantly lower payments than the current rents received from these sites as well as their standard terms, which often change many aspects of the agreement in their favour,” said the firm’s head of energy, Mike Reid, “but they are offering oneoff inducement payments, often in excess of £10,000, to property owners on condition they sign an agreement within the next few weeks.”
He said that this timescale was likely to see contracts signed prior to Land Tribunal’s key ruling - due in the coming weeks which will decide whether the mobile operators could legally demand a replacement lease under the new Electronic Communications Code.
Reid said the proposed terms often contained provisions which could be detrimental to the property owner, such as giving up rights to all future rent reviews – and he added that with rents offered often falling from around £5,000 a mast to £750 a mast, income would be slashed in the long term.
And he explained that under Scottish law – and contrary to the impression being given my phone companies - any delay in agreeing new terms wouldn’t affect mobile coverage or connectivity in the area as the mobile operators were already operating from these sites and any lease would be subject to tacit relocation which would allow operations to continue. But Reid also issued a warning where communication companies wanted to upgrade masts to allow them to transmit 5G signals:
“Landowners need to understand the implications this might have for radiation exclusion zones – and while 4G requires the public to be excluded for a radius of 19-20 metres aroundthemast,thatcould well extend to 50m where 5G is being transmitted.”
And he warned that there were also concerns over the height of masts – a 15 m high mast would normally have an exclusion zone which reached close to 4m from the ground. However this could have implications for anyone working at height – and even for those driving agricultural vehicles such as combines:
“Not all telecommunications operators are informing landowners about these exclusion zones which is very concerning as it prevents the landowner from implementing the appropriate safety guidelines.”