Agriculture: Tenant gives notice then pleads for stay

The Land Court has recently had to consider a plea for sympathy from a woman who was the author of her own misfortune.

In Scott v Hunter SLC/173/21 (3 March 2022) Mrs Hunter was formally the tenant of Castleside Farm, Selkirk. On 24 February 2020, her agents gave notice under s 21 of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991 of her intention to quit the farm as at 28 November 2021. Her tenancy accordingly came to an end at that date. The date came and went but Hunter remained in occupation of the farm.

On 14 December 2021 agents for the landlord, Mrs Scott, applied to the Land Court for an order (1) finding and declaring that the lease had been terminated as at 28 November 2021 by virtue of the tenant’s notice of intention to quit; (2) for the removal of Hunter from the farm; and (3) for the expense of the application. The application was duly intimated to Hunter, who was given 21 days within which to lodge any answers. No answers were received by the court and on 21 February 2022 Scott’s agents emailed the court to move that an order be granted in terms of the crave. 

An order was about to be signed and issued when on 25 February 2022 the court received an email from Hunter stating that she intended to be fully gone from Castleside no matter what by 28 May. She explained the reasons for not removing as difficulties in finding alternative locations for sheep which were about to go into lambing and for herself. A comment was also made about an alleged propensity on the part of the landlord who would rather see houses sit empty than let them. 

The court took it that Hunter recognised there was no defence to the application but was asking the court to hold off granting the order for removal until such time as the sheep could be moved with their lambs at foot, at latest 28 May 2022. It gave Scott’s agents the opportunity to respond; they confirmed that Scott wished the court to proceed to grant the order for possession without further ado. Hunter had had over two years to plan and organise her removal from the farm. Scott was also understandably reluctant to rely on Hunter’s word again, and allowing the sheep to remain on the farm would be prejudicial to the landlord’s interest as she was herself gearing up to start lambing. Further, the proposed backstop removal date of 28 May was after the single farm payment reference date by which time Scott would require vacant possession in her own right. There was no suggestion of a defence to the application.

The court considered the matter very carefully, and clearly took cognisance of the dilemma for Hunter and her concerns about animal welfare, but weighing all the facts up, particularly bearing in mind that Hunter had served notice of intention to quit, refused the deferment she sought. This was not the first time the parties had seen each other in court, and the court commented that the present situation might colloquially be put as “the writing has been on the wall for the respondent for a number of years”. 

The court observed that it could not either comprehend or overlook that the termination date was fixed at the tenant’s own hand for 28 November 2021, but with that date fast approaching she chose to put her remaining ewes to the ram with “no plan B” as to where they would spend the winter and lamb if the landlord enforced the removal to which the tenant herself had agreed. She had had a number of options including selling the remaining sheep before the termination date.

Extract of the order was however superseded until 18 March 2022 in respect of the farmland and 1 April 2022 in respect of the farmhouse and farm buildings, the purpose being to emphasise to the tenant that it was incumbent on her with lambing imminent to make relocation of the sheep her immediate priority, therefore avoiding the potential animal welfare issues to which she had drawn attention in her email. 

It strikes me as a decision which is fair, sympathetic and reasonable to both parties taking account of the rather peculiar circumstances here.