Farm business tenancy agreement (2 years or under)

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Document overview

A lease that creates a farm business tenancy under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Suitable for terms of less than 2 years. Automatically expires at the notice period without a requirement for notice. Suitable to be used as a short term grazing lease. There is strong protection for the landlord with 50 tenant's covenants, but the tenant is treated fairly.
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  • Length:17 pages (4840 words)
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About this farm business tenancy agreement

This lease is suitable either when the landlord and tenant agree that the agreement is a farm business tenancy, or when the land and buildings being let will be farmed or used for agricultural business purposes. The term of the lease should be 2 years or less. Under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, farm business tenancies of less than two years expire automatically at the end of the term, and without the need for the landlord to give notice.

When to use this lease

This document should be used if:

  • All or part of the land is farmed for trade or business throughout the tenancy
  • If the landlord and tenant exchange notices at the beginning of the tenancy saying that the agreement is and will remain a farm business tenancy
  • If the circumstances of occupation suggest that the character of the tenancy is primarily agricultural

Definition of an agricultural business

Agricultural business refers to using all or part of the property to grow plants (crops) or rear animals with a view to sale. The scale of the business is not important: the same tenancy laws apply whether the property is a commercial dairy farm with hundreds of acres of pasture, or 10 metres of poly-tunnel under which a prize garden plant is cultivated for sale to the public.

Farming encompasses all sorts of businesses, from those growing crops in fields (including grass, hay or silage), to those where the crops are grown in an orchard or under glass (e.g. rhubarb or mushrooms), to those where the "crop" is an animal (e.g. lamb farming) or a product derived from animals (e.g. milk). Keeping animals (e.g. grazing horses on the land) in itself is not an agricultural business but horse breeding is. A garden centre is not an agricultural business, but plant growing is.

Change of use may be anticipated and will not necessarily disqualify the agreement, if notice has been served. The Act does not make clear how far diversification may go. However, it has now become clear that peripheral or additional business operations will not prevent a tenancy from being a farm business tenancy, for example, operation of a farm shop or a camp site. In any case, any diversification of use other than farming is likely to require the consent of the landlord.

Example tenants who might use this lease:

  • A wheat farmer renting additional land
  • A dairy farmer renting the land and outbuildings
  • Someone grazing animals on the land
  • Someone running a horse stud as a 'hobby' business and using the land or buildings for keeping horses
  • A brewer who grows the apples on the rented land and makes the cider in an outbuilding
  • A plant grower who sells his plants from a building on the site
  • A mushroom grower using one of the outbuildings to develop a new breed for commercial sale

Similar alternative documents

If you are unsure which sort of lease or licence you need, we have an information article: Choosing between a land lease, an agricultural tenancy agreement and a licence. To summarise it here:

If the use of the property is for non-agricultural business use, such as tractor repair and storage or feed merchanting, use one of our agricultural licence agreements or lease templates instead.

We also offer a long term farm business tenancy agreement for when the lease period is over 7 years.

The law relating to this document

This document complies with the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 and the 2006 Agricultural Tenancies Order.

It is the legal requirement under section 1(4) of the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 that landlord and tenant must acknowledge that each has received a written notice from the other to confirm that they are going to form a farm business tenancy. We have zipped the copy of this notice for your convenience with this document.

Document features and contents

This lease comes with a menu of over 50 options to empower or restrict the tenant. The terms have been carefully considered to protect the landlord's interests while remaining fair to the tenant.

  • the farm business tenancy
  • rent and other payments: including interest on late payments
  • tenant's positive obligations and restrictions: a menu of 52 items
  • tenant may not assign the lease
  • insurance: choice for the landlord to be responsible, or for the tenant to be responsible
  • access for the landlord
  • termination: including events at and after termination
  • forfeiture
  • other matters
  • schedule: rights reserved
Sample farm business tenancy agreement (2 years or under)Sample page from the farm business tenancy agreement
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Recent reviews

Great Service
04 February 2020
Your service is so easy and straightforward and is great value. The tenancy template we purchased dealt with all the headaches we inherited with a historic informal agreement. Our tenant was also happy with the simple document. I did a bit of comparative research to check that the document we were planning to purchase would fit our needs. The reviews on your site were also useful. I would definitely recommend Net Lawman to others and will probably be back for further documents myself. Many thanks
Amanda Fitzwilliams
Great Service
24 January 2014
This was my first purchase from Net Lawman. I bought from here because the information on the website was detailed enough to educate me about what document I would need. It guided me through the alternatives and gave me the confidence that I was choosing the right document.

I had no prior knowledge of Farm business tenancy agreements, but the information here and the notes with the document have given me what I need.

The clear distinction between which sections of the document need my decisions and which should stay as they are is very helpful, and the notes accompanying gave clear advice.

I had a query about one section of the document that was answered by email within 24 hours. Very good.

I would recommend Net Lawman to others because of the clarity and background information that is available before you buy, allowing you to make an informed decision.
Richard Pitt
Great Service
02 November 2020
It seems good. I particularly like the bit that tells you that you can freely change the entries in 2 of the paragraphs, and the explanations about some of the stuff included seemed clear. I like the straightforward language and explanation of the official terms too. I wasn't quite sure what you meant about the notifications that tenant and landlord give each other before signing the tenancy agreement being "zipped" to the document so have written ourselves to be sure. I didn't asked for help with this which I think I could have. It's only a small bit of land I'm letting so did feel quite expensive. But has given peace of mind.
Joanna Shirley

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