5 Series of tenancies

9.19 Section 73 deals with the case where the tenant has remained in occupation of the holding during two or more tenancies. It may happen that the parties enter into a new tenancy agreement, perhaps with modified terms, without disrupting the continuing landlord/tenant relationship.

9.20 As originally framed, s 73 only operated to preserve the landlord’s claim where the second and successive tenancies were granted to the same ‘tenant’ and related to the same ‘holding’. The section would not apply where the parties to the tenancy had altered – for instance if an additional tenant has been brought in – or if the boundaries of the holding had been altered by the addition of extra land in a way which was other than de minimis. The latter might be triggered by an express or implied surrender and regrant of the tenancy upon the addition of extra land to the existing tenancy. Where this occurred the landlord would have to exercise his rights to compensation on termination of the original tenancy. An implied surrender and regrant might otherwise result in his right to compensation being lost, and inapplicable at the end of the successive tenancy. As noted above, the Regulatory Reform (Agricultural Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2006³⁶ amended s 73 to preserve half the landlord’s claim for dilapidations where there is an implied surrender and regrant, but only: (a) where the surrender and regrant is triggered by the addition of land to the tenancy³⁷ (not where the identity of the tenant has changed); and (b) where the tenancy was granted on or after 19 October 2006.³⁸ As a result, it is necessary to distinguish;

•Claims for compensation on the termination of tenancies granted before 19 October 2006. Where a tenancy has been granted successive to an earlier tenancy the rules applicable prior to the 2006 Order will apply.

•Claims for compensation on the termination of tenancies granted on or after 19 October 2006. The rules in the 2006 Order will apply to preserve claims for compensation where a succession tenancy has been granted or where there has been an express or implied surrender and regrant following the addition of land to the tenancy. In this case, s 73, as amended, applies to preserve the landlord’s claim where the tenant has remained on the holding ‘or on any agricultural holding which comprised the whole or a substantial part of the land comprised in the holding’³⁹ during successive tenancies. The successive tenancy may be granted impliedly (for example by the addition of land to the existing tenancy) or expressly using the facility in s 4(1)(g) of the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995,⁴⁰ which preserves the status of agricultural holdings where the tenancy expressly states that the 1986 Act is to apply to it and the original 1986 Act tenancy comprised a substantial part of the current tenancy either in terms of area or value.⁴¹