What exactly is 'an agricultural tie' when buying a house?

Fools Motto

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Does 'equine' come under it? Or does it mean that farm livestock have to be ''housed'' on the property?
Explain - simplest terms please, feeling mighty poorly and fear brain will hurt more if I have to think!
 

martlin

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The most common wording of an agricultural tie is something along the lines of:
The residence of the property is restricted to person solely/mainly or last employed in agriculture/forestry (in the area) and their dependants.

Which basically means that you must either be farming or be a retired farmer.
 

Fools Motto

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So, according to that - I think, I could live in such a property simply because I have a farming background as my father farms beef cattle?
But, does that mean horses can be 'housed' on the property? (with or without a cow or two?) Can the farm buildings be converted to stabling or does it have to remain as is?
 

martlin

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unless you or your OH farm, simply being a daughter of a farmer does not qualify you to live in a property with a tie.
keeping horses will be possible, depending on planning permission, of course :)
 

meesha

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haha cross post, I am sure if the property is being sold by an agricultural estate agent they would be able to advise you, worth a call !
 

Fools Motto

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haha cross post, I am sure if the property is being sold by an agricultural estate agent they would be able to advise you, worth a call !

TBH, I'm totally dreaming... but just brousing through local houses and this caught my eye. I'd have to win the Euro millions, AND then convince OH that it is a lovely house. He has already said highly doubtful as it won't have MEGA fast internet connection!!
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34567685.html
 

meesha

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wow !!! worth investigating the situation though and making sure you are on your dads books as some fairly resonable property does come up with "agricultural tie" !!

again, wow !!
 

indie999

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You have to prove you have worked in an agricultural industry (there is loads of info on the net to say how long etc etc) Agricultural tied properties usually are a bit lower in price due to this restriction placed on them. Its very hard to get it lifted.

ie you could be a chicken farmer etc even on small scale and that would be ok

I dont think equine is allowed!!

good luck
 

Ladyinred

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You have to prove you have worked in an agricultural industry (there is loads of info on the net to say how long etc etc) Agricultural tied properties usually are a bit lower in price due to this restriction placed on them. Its very hard to get it lifted.

ie you could be a chicken farmer etc even on small scale and that would be ok

I dont think equine is allowed!!

good luck

You can keep horses but they are not counted as agricultural so you will need something else as well.

How about some sheep to help worm control and trim the grass? Bit of faffing about with dipping etc but a small proce to pay for somewhere as gorgeous as that.
 

marmalade76

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Houses with ag ties are generally cheaper because it is impossible to get mortgages on them, you need to have the cash in full.

They used to be dirt cheap because the ties used to be hard to lift but not so these days (there is at least one company who advertises an ag tie lifting service in H&H every week, no win, no fee), which has unfortunately pushed the price up and out of the reach of the majority of agricultural workers. So, if you have the money to buy such a property, you have the money to have the tie lifted and then sell the property on for a profit thus robbing those of us whose living depends on agriculture the oppotunity of buying a reasonably priced property in the country :( :mad: Shouldn't be allowed if you ask me.

Horses do not count as agricultural but theres nothing stopping you keeping your own horses on a property with an ag tie.

ETA, the family part generally refers to the widows of agricultural workers, in other word they won't be kicked out of their home if their husband dies.
 
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xxMozlarxx

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They used to be dirt cheap because the ties used to be hard to lift but not so these days (there is at least one company who advertises an ag tie lifting service in H&H every week, no win, no fee), which has unfortunately pushed the price up and out of the reach of the majority of agricultural workers. So, if you have the money to buy such a property, you have the money to have the tie lifted and then sell the property on for a profit thus robbing those of us whose living depends on agriculture the oppotunity of buying a reasonably priced property in the country :( :mad: Shouldn't be allowed if you ask me.

Horses do not count as agricultural but theres nothing stopping you keeping your own horses on a property with an ag tie.


Shouldn't be allowed this positive discrimination towards those working in Agriculture IMO. There are plenty of people living in the countryside existing on low wages, why should there be the option to purchase cheaper housing/land because of working in agriculture...wrong..
 

marmalade76

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Ha ha ha, read my post again, you cannot get a mortgage on a house with an ag tie, so the advantage was minimal anyway! And how do you suggest affordable housing is provided for those country people on low wages whilst keeping the wealthy townie out??

I shall try to explain the reason for an ag tie - in areas where planning permission is very hard to get, the person wanting the property would have to prove a need for it, ie, they need to live there to look after animals, etc, and the ag tie was intended to stop greedy people building houses then selling them on to people without a 'need' to live in that property.

ETA, are you refering to people on low wages who live in the country but don't work there? In which case they have no 'need 'to live there and no more right than a wealthy townie! As it happens, my OH has worked in agriculture all his life and we cannot afford to live in the area that he works (ag tie or not), we live and a town and he spends a fortune on fuel traveling to and from work (which we can ill afford on what little we earn), poluting the globe whilst the townies travel the other way!
 
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*hic*

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AFAIK the definition is getting the majority of one's income from agriculture, being a small scale chicken farmer would not normally provide sufficient income.

For example I used to get all my income from chickens, geese and goats however my husband had a proper job and we would not have been allowed to live in an Ag Tie property.

You also need to know exactly what the convenant is. I'm aware of at least one property where you can only legally live in it if you are carrying out a specific activity at that location.
 

EventingMum

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Houses with ag ties are generally cheaper because it is impossible to get mortgages on them, you need to have the cash in full.

They used to be dirt cheap because the ties used to be hard to lift but not so these days (there is at least one company who advertises an ag tie lifting service in H&H every week, no win, no fee), which has unfortunately pushed the price up and out of the reach of the majority of agricultural workers. So, if you have the money to buy such a property, you have the money to have the tie lifted and then sell the property on for a profit thus robbing those of us whose living depends on agriculture the oppotunity of buying a reasonably priced property in the country :( :mad: Shouldn't be allowed if you ask me.

Horses do not count as agricultural but theres nothing stopping you keeping your own horses on a property with an ag tie.

ETA, the family part generally refers to the widows of agricultural workers, in other word they won't be kicked out of their home if their husband dies.



It is possible to get a mortgage with an ag tie - a lot of the high street lenders are not keen to do so but there are those that will. We built a house and the council put an equestrian/agricultural tie on it - when we looked for a mortgage the Clydesdale Bank said it wasn't a problem and I also found there were a few specialist mortgage brokers who deal with ag tie properties too.
 

Maesfen

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Agree totally with Marmalade in that Ag-Ties should never be removed because that house was only ever able to be built because of need by the farmer. If by any chance the tie is able to be lifted to be sold then the person/company/farm that built it should have to pay back all the VAT and other tax relief they were able to claim when building or even repairing it; shouldn't matter how long ago it was built and it should be sold at the price it would have been when it was built, no more; builders of ag-tie properties should not in any way profit from it other than having a property for them or a worker to live in.
 

*hic*

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I'd agree with Maesfen.

Locally we have an estate full of houses with workshops and BIG gardens that were built with a covenant on them that they could only be lived in by people running a business from them. The only reason planning was granted was because we are in a deprived area and it was an attempt to bring in business and work to the area. The houses were selling at around £140K rather than £250K purely because you HAD to be running a business from them. Then a bunch of people bought at the cheap price and got the covenant lifted. Instant £110K profit and suddenly those people who were running small businesses can't afford to live there, we have even more people commuting out of the village to work and no chance of any work for local people other than the odd cleaning job:( Totally blooming wrong.
 

RunToEarth

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Shouldn't be allowed this positive discrimination towards those working in Agriculture IMO. There are plenty of people living in the countryside existing on low wages, why should there be the option to purchase cheaper housing/land because of working in agriculture...wrong..

are you kidding? Ag ties reduce the value of a property, they were designed for farm workers and generally retained by the farm owners, their value is not a positive descrimination, ag ties are notoriously difficult to lift, therefore the property will always be devalued.

In case you haven't noticed farming is on its arse, if ag ties are the only thing we get by way of positive descrimination then its a sorry state.
 

JanetGeorge

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Ha ha ha, read my post again, you cannot get a mortgage on a house with an ag tie, so the advantage was minimal anyway! And how do you suggest affordable housing is provided for those country people on low wages whilst keeping the wealthy townie out??

You can - but not a normal building society mortgage. We bought our farm - with agricultural tie - on a bank mortgage. We had to produce a business plan to show how we were going to make money (I could have got a job as a writer of fiction from that little effort :D) And the interest rate was 1% above what we would have got for a normal residential mortgage. I think the bank might have been swayed by the fact that my OH worked at the time for IBM - the safest job in the world at the time! We kept sheep. After 5 years (during which time the farm made NO money) I got rid of the sheep - but I was then 'last employed in agriculture'! No-one ever asked!

I worked off the farm for 10 years - and then converted the farm buildings and started my stud. For various reasons I didn't get planning permission - and 3 years later I got a visit from the planning inspector. Of course, the only thing they COULD have done was make me re-instate the site to how it was - in other words - semi-derelict farm buildings of concrete block and broken aspestos roof sheets. The moaned at me for a year or two - then went away! Can't guarantee all Councils will be as useless!
 

Christmas Crumpet

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We bought a house with an ag. tie on last year for considerably less than it would cost without one. Husband works as an agricultural contractor which means we were def. eligible to be able to live here.

Bank were more than happy to lend us the money as we had 60% of the purchase price for the deposit and our mortgage is less than it costs to rent a one bedroom flat nearby.
 

Hoptoit

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How on earth did they get planning permission for the house the OP is referring to? Not exactly a farmhouse, not likely to be bought by 'farmers', and not really big enough to farm anyway! Ridiculous.

I think ag ties have their heart in the right place; there should be special consideration for individuals who need o live on the land, but in reality they are the most abused planning conditions going. And yes OP, you probably would get away with it by keeping a couple of cows. But that doesn't make it right!!!
 

marmalade76

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Glad to hear that it is possible to get a mortgage on one (OH tried to buy his childhood home when his father died, but could not get a mortgage on it even though it was only £150k and he had a reasonable deposit too :( ), but with the rise in price of houses with ag ties, we still couldn't afford one even with a mortgage. I suspect that as a self employed person on a low wage it would be virtually impossible these days, and no chance of us having a 60% deposit either!
 

Christmas Crumpet

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Forgot to say that actually our mortgage is with Cheltenham & Gloucester which is a building society but linked to Lloyds who we bank with. Only reason we had such a large deposit was because 4 close family members died in 2 years and we ended up with a fairly large inheritance otherwise we'd still be renting!!!
 

jrp204

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We bought a house with an ag. tie on last year for considerably less than it would cost without one. Husband works as an agricultural contractor which means we were def. eligible to be able to live here.



We tried for planning to build a house on our 4 acre field which already had an agricultural shed on and an acre of brown field site, we were solely contracting, employing 5 men. We were willing to have a tie put on it. We were turned down at appeal because as contractors we were not 'agricultural' and were 'sui generis' which was totally ridiculous. When we wanted to replace the old shed on the site we were suddenly 'agricultural'!
 
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