4.01 Farm business tenancies under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 are firmly rooted in freedom of contract.

This is reflected in the provisions governing termination: the 1995 Act gives the parties freedom to negotiate the length of the tenancy and confers no security of tenure on the tenant after termination of the contractual tenancy.

Residual security is retained, however, in that at least twelve months’ notice will be required to terminate most farm business tenancies. This concession is demanded by the realities of farming practice and the agricultural year. Most farm tenancies are annual periodic tenancies, and the application of the common law rules of termination, which require a mere six months’ notice to quit, would not give the tenant time within which to harvest crops and remove farm machinery. The only statutory security afforded to the tenant is contained in ss 5 to 7 of the 1995 Act, which set out the notice provisions for termination. It is for the parties to agree any additional security to be granted to the tenant, through the free negotiation of an appropriate term length to meet the circumstances of the individual case.

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