tenants rights when renting grazing land?

[835375]

I rent a section of a field for grazing one horse, there are three of us renting a section each, we have no agreements with the land owner verbal or written and they have now decided to sell the land, as tenants do we have any rights??

 

[Maesfen]

Short answer, if you have no contract then no. It's their land, they can do what they want although they should be fair and give you plenty of notice.

BTW, you must have some sort of verbal agreement otherwise how are you able to use it now? Do you pay cash weekly/monthly? Also do you have to be off it at some point of the year?

 

[835375]

Thanks for your reply Maesfen;12385503,
We have rented this for six years now, & the land owner has been very fair through out this time dealing with up keep etc..
Verbal agreement was made when we first started renting, but only on the amount of rent to pay, we were told the weekly amount but usually pay this every 4 - 6 weeks! There has been no agreements made since this (verbal or written) & we have never signed any licences or contracts.
In the last 6 years we have been moved to another field for 3 weeks (back in 2010) whilst ours was sprayed & rested but this was all arranged by the land owner with the other fields owner!

 

[Dry Rot]

As M has said. Just think yourself lucky for having such a good arrangement for so long. You might find it a good idea to get some sort of reference from the landowners because it might help when trying to find somewhere new.

 

[835375]

Thanks Dry Rot! We do think ourselves very lucky as we have had a good thing going, I would not want to leave on bad terms anyway as like I said earlier the land owner is very nice & been very fair during this time, it's such a shame things have to change as they have decided to sell! I just wanted to check as someone has told us we will have some rights, but from what i can see it would only apply if the land was for agriculture/business use whereas as far as i know it is registered for equine use only?

 

[Maesfen]

While tenants who have proper agreements (of the right type) in place do have some rights, that's true, but in your situation I very much doubt it as you've never had official tenure. Good idea about the references too. Of course, there's nothing to stop you and the other liveries clubbing together to buy the field unless it will go with PP of course or he already has a buyer for it. Then again, if so, the new owner might be willing to let you stay, for a while of course.