Agricultural tenancy – Date upon which tenancy determinable by notice to quit – Whether conversion of agreement to deemed tenancy from year to year under section 2(1) of Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 taking immediate effect
The plaintiff had farmed 38 acres of arable land at Lutterworth, Leicestershire, since 1989. By an agreement between the plaintiff and his landlord dated June 11 1993 the plaintiff agreed a term of 13 months from November 1 1992 and expiring on November 30 1993, at a rent of £1,600 pa payable by equal half-yearly instalments to be paid in arrears on April 6 1993 and the last on November 30 1993. The plaintiff’s landlord sold the land to the defendant in March 1997. The defendant had outline planning permission for a housing development on the land and on July 28 1997 contractors moved on to the land to start work. The defendant did not know of the plaintiff’s tenancy. The plaintiff protested and the work was stopped. He was allowed to harvest the crop of barley which he had on the land. The plaintiff then brought an action in the county court claiming damages for trespass. On August 21 1997 the defendant gave notice to quit, which (subject to arbitration under the Agricultural Holdings (Arbitration on Notices) Order 1987) would expire either on November 30 1998 or on June 11 depending on the date upon which the tenancy was determinable by notice to quit.
It was common ground that the plaintiff had acquired a valid tenancy, but a dispute arose as to the correct anniversary date of the tenancy. Although the lease was backdated so that it complied with the Gladstone v Bower conditions, the lease only operated from the date of its signing, namely June 11 1993, until its expiry on November 30 1993 . By operation of section 2 of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, it was converted to a yearly tenancy. The judge held that the agreement made between the plaintiff and the defendant’s successor in title on June 11 1993 took effect as if it were an agreement for the letting of the land from year to year from November 30 1993. The plaintiff appealed contending that the effect of section 2 was to substitute a tenancy from year to year with immediate effect with the result that the lease took effect until the anniversary of the grant of the tenancy, namely June 11 1994. If parliament had intended the effect of section 2(1) to make the yearly term follow from the expiry of the lease, in this case from November 30, it would have followed the wording of section 3 of the Act.
Held The appeal was allowed.
1. Section 2(1) of the Act operated to cause the conversion of the actual agreement between the parties to one which conformed with the requirements of the section. That conversion took effect immediately with no intervening period and not after the expiration of the term of the actual agreement between the parties. Therefore the anniversary date of the tenancy was June 11.
2. It was notable that section 3 of the Act, in relation to tenancies for terms of two years or more, expressly provided that instead of terminating on the term date they should continue as from that date as tenancies from year to year. In contrast, section 2(1) had no such wording, and it was consistent with the plain wording of section 2(1) that the subsection operated immediately.
John West (instructed by M&S Solicitors, of Swepstone) appeared for the appellant; Phillip Hoser (instructed by Shoosmiths & Harrison, of Rugby) appeared for the respondent.
