1 Introduction
7.01 The Agricultural Holdings legislation confers security of tenure upon tenants by placing restrictions on the operation of notices to quit. The contractual norm in the immediate post war period, when security of tenure was first introduced by the Agriculture Act 1947, was the annual periodic tenancy.1 Most farm tenancies would, dependant on local custom and the type of farming involved, be either yearly Lady Day tenancies terminable on 25 March or Michaelmas tenancies terminable on 29 September.
The overall scheme of the legislation was to bring other letting arrangements into conformity with the annual tenancy – hence the conversion of short term lets and licences into annual tenancies by s 2 of the 1986 Act, and the continuation of fixed term tenancies as annual periodic terms on termination2 – and then to control the manner in which a landlord could terminate the tenancy by giving notice to quit. The consolidated modern law is set out in Part I of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986.7.02 A notice to quit must give a minimum of 12 months notice, whether it relates to the whole or part of a holding.3 This basic requirement applies to all notices to quit an agricultural holding. The legislation makes no formal distinction between different kinds of notice to quit. Nevertheless notices to quit fall into several distinct categories, characterised by the nature and extent of the restrictions placed on their operation.
•A fundamental distinction must be made between notices to quit given in unqualified terms, and those given in reliance on one (or more) of the Cases for Possession set out in Sch 3 to the 1986 Act. The most extensive restrictions apply to unqualified notices to quit; such a notice cannot take effect unless the landlord obtains the consent of an agricultural land tribunal to its so doing.
Protection is not conferred automatically, however, irrespective of the tenant’s volition – the notice to quit will take effect unless the tenant elects to claim protection by serving a counter notice within one month, requiring the landlord to obtain tribunal consent.•Where notice to quit is given pursuant to one of the Cases for Possession, however, the tenant’s right to serve a counter notice is excluded.4 In this event the notice to quit can only be challenged (if at all) by arbitration under the Act,5 or for ambiguity or fraud at common law.
•A notice to quit served on the death of the sole remaining tenant6 is treated somewhat differently. If the tenancy carries succession rights any notice to quit given by the landlord is suspended once an application for succession has been made.7 It can only take effect if no application for succession is made; or, where an application for succession is made, if it is either rejected or if consent to the notice to quit’s operation is granted by the first tier tribunal during the succession proceedings.8
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