2 Compensation on termination

(a)Allotments

10.25 On termination of his tenancy, whether by effluxion of time or other cause, the tenant of an allotment is entitled to compensation from his landlord for:

(i)crops, including fruit, growing upon the land in the ordinary course of cultivation, and for labour expended upon and manure applied to the land; and

(ii)for fruit bushes or trees provided and planted by the tenant with the previous consent in writing of the landlord, and for drains, outbuildings, pigsties, fowl-houses or other structural improvements made or erected by, and at the expense of, the tenant on the land with the landlord’s consent.³⁵

10.26 The parties cannot contract out of these compensation provisions.

10.27 By virtue of s 22(3) ibid compensation must be based on the value of the crops, etc to an incoming tenant.

(b)Allotment gardens

10.28 The compensation available to the tenant of an allotment garden is more restricted. Such holdings cannot qualify as agricultural holdings within the 1986 Act (no trade or business is involved) and so compensation will be exclusively based on the 1922 Act. Compensation on quitting is only recoverable if the tenancy is terminated by the landlord by notice to quit or by re-entry under s 1 of the 1922 Act, but not where re-entry is for breach of tenancy or the insolvency of the tenant.³⁷ By virtue of s 2(3) the tenant will be entitled to compensation for crops growing on the land in the ordinary course of cultivation of the land as an allotment garden, and for manure applied to the land. ‘Contracting out’ is effectively allowed, in that s 2(8) provides that compensation is not recoverable except as provided by the Act, or by the contract of tenancy.

10.29 If the tenancy is terminated on or between 9 September and 11 October in any year, the tenant has the additional right to remove crops growing on the land, provided he does so within 21 days after termination of the tenancy.³⁸

10.30 Section 3 of the Allotments Act 1950 entitles the tenant to compensation for disturbance, but only if the tenancy is terminated:

(i)by re-entry (other than for breach of tenancy) under the Allotments Act 1922; or

(ii)where the landlord is himself a tenant, by termination of his tenancy; or

(iii)where the landlord is a local authority, where the authority’s rights of occupation have been terminated.

10.31 The tenant is entitled to one year’s rent of the land by way of disturbance compensation, or a rateable amount if part only of the land is repossessed.

10.32 The landlord has, by virtue of s 4 of the 1950 Act, a claim for compensation for any deterioration of the land caused by the failure of the tenant to leave it clean and in a good state of cultivation and fertility. The quantum of compensation in this instance is the cost, at the date of the tenant’s quitting, of making good the deterioration complained of.³⁹

(c)Determination and recovery of compensation

10.33 Compensation under the Allotments Act is, in default of agreement, to be determined by a valuation made by a person appointed by the county court judge with jurisdiction where the land is situate, on a written application made for that purpose by either landlord or tenant. If not paid within 14 days of being agreed or determined it is recoverable in the county court as money ordered to be paid by the court.⁴⁰

10.34 In the case of an allotment simpliciter, if compensation is also available under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 for the matters at issue, the claim can be made either under the 1922 Act or under the 1986 Act. In the latter event, the quantum will be referable to arbitration under Sch 11 to the 1986 Act in the normal way. Compensation is recoverable from a mortgagee exercising his right to possession, subject to a deduction for any rent or other sums owing from the tenant.⁴¹