Would you pay full years rent in order to get the perfect yard?

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vikkibeth

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Continuing on from a post a few days back my friends looking for new grazing for her ponies. Found one today, a bit far away but do able! I feel in love with it with her, perfect hacking, nice land. Went to discuss rent and the owners now want a year full up and deposit! Is that normal? Has anyone else had this? She's gutted.
 
If it was a private yard ie my use only and there was an iron clad contract then yes. On a normal livery yard, no way!
 
vikkibeth said:
Continuing on from a post a few days back my friends looking for new grazing for her ponies. Found one today, a bit far away but do able! I feel in love with it with her, perfect hacking, nice land. Went to discuss rent and the owners now want a year full up and deposit! Is that normal? Has anyone else had this? She's gutted.
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Deposit yes, year up front no- what if she hates it/horse doesn't settle/she sells up?
 
Well I paid a full years livery in October this year as I had the money, it is my best friends yard and she needed the money. I wouldn't do it in other circumstances unless it was a private yard and I had a very solid contract.

I have wondered what might happen if the horse/pony were to die/be put down before the year was up....in my case I wouldn't care about the money as my friend has kept my pony for nothing in the past so wouldn't expect/want it back. What would happen on a normal livery yard though?!
 
Nicnac said:
Yes, if it's just a field it's not going to be a huge amount and is pretty much the norm when renting under an agricultural tenancy.
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Hmmm, yes agree this is fairly common for "agricultural" tenancies, BUT I'd be inclined in that case to ask to see the agreement and eyeball it well before signing up & paying up-front, as IF its an "agricultural" tenancy then there will be terms and conditions and you need to be watchful coz it just might say "no horses", believe it or not (the owners might not even be aware of this!).

The other things you might not be able to do might include putting up jumps, school markers etc, so be careful. Also you might have to be responsible for the fences and gates, i.e. if a gate for example is in bad condition or a fence, then YOU could end up replacing it at the end of the tenancy even if it was in that state when you took the tenancy on.

Read through thoroughly & don't sign up hastily would be my advice.

And if there IS no tenancy/agreement in place full stop; then walk away. Don't FFS pay up front a year in advance if no tenancy exists coz you could well be throwing money to the wind.
 
vikkibeth said:
I guess one persons not a huge amount is another's huge as I couldn't afford a couple of grand up front myself either. But maybe I am on my own in this.
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Certainly not on your own,I wouldn't be able to fund that either.

I have heard of yearly rents for council owned land,not for anything else though TBH.

I would be wary of paying a private landlord/landowner a years rent in advance,what if land didn't turn out to be suitable? What if pony died or owner had to sell? There are loads of things that could change in the space of a year,don't think I would want to risk it.
 
I pay mine a year up front and it is pretty standard for renting grazing. Mine is only about 450 though so as I had just bought a horse under budget I factored it in. I love it not having to worry about rent as I am crap at organising and like to have it out of the way. I will be saving up for when it comes round again in Oct, but I know that these people would let me pay half and half at different times of year if I need so Maybe you could enquire about that.
 
P.s. I wouldn't want to pay a deposit as well as this. It's not like they need it in case you don't pay the rent. Also I was fortunate enough to rent mine off the previous girl for a couple of months so I knew it was a good place to be before paying up!

I should think you can check the land registry or something to see if it is theirs but I would be requesting a proper contract with these details and those of what would happen if land not suitable or you needed to leave etc. Probably best to negotiate 6 months first if you can or at least a months trial paid up front.
 
I wouldn`t be paying deposit but yearly on advance is fairly standard practise. Agricultural rents are about £25 per acre pa!
No wonder they like pony people!
I pay just short of £500 pa for 1.75 acres but to me its worth it as its a short walk from home where I have stables but only 0.75 of an acre.
 
Do you think then that a £2000 for 6 acres is a lot? As livery you would easily pay £25+ a week for each pony. I can understand paying up £700 up front but surely to most paying that much up front is a lot?
 
devonlass said:
I have heard of yearly rents for council owned land,not for anything else though TBH.

I would be wary of paying a private landlord/landowner a years rent in advance,what if land didn't turn out to be suitable? What if pony died or owner had to sell? There are loads of things that could change in the space of a year,don't think I would want to risk it.
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If it was agricultural land, then yes, you just have to lose it if you can't use it.
Just make sure agreement is drawn up by someone reputable like farm valuers/auctioneers after you've read it.
 
vikkibeth said:
Do you think then that a £2000 for 6 acres is a lot? As livery you would easily pay £25+ a week for each pony. I can understand paying up £700 up front but surely to most paying that much up front is a lot?
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Honestly yes I do think £2k for 6 acres is a lot, at livery you are not responsible for fencing, topping, harrowing, re-seeding, fertiliser etc, plus the electirc bill and water bill.

Unless the ground is perfect well draining perminant pasture you'd get a max of 3horses on it 24/7 365 days. Livery equivalent at £25 a week would be £4k and you don't have all the maintenance and ongoing costs.

As noted above bare land is typcially in the £100's an acre per year
 
Hmm, well it depends where you are in the country but its 166 a month, for 6 acres as long as grazing is good I think that is reasonable based on the fact that say for two horses you would be paying 100 each a month plus bedding etc probably with limited turnout. It depends how many horses your friend has as to how much she would be paying out otherwise! If say she wanted to have 6 horses on it, that would be 27 a month each, which would certainly beat livery hands down. Is there automatic water and any hardstanding or covered areas to keep hay etc?

Is she doing this on her own? If she doesn't actually need 6 acres could she try to get it split? Ours is two twoish acre plots on a joint tenancy so they are our own space but we just have to coordinate signing and paying the agent at the same time. There is a 4 acre one next door and I assume the same could be done with that.

I hope there will be a proper contract, that is really important and we actually go through a normal letting agent that happens to deal with these type of tenancies as well.
 
Its completely normal with agricultural tenancies, but to be fair the payment of deposits is fairly unusual though. Also, even if you dont sign a formal tenancy, a contract will still exist between you and the landlord. Putting my letting agents head on, a contract exists if there are three things, an offer, acceptance and consideraton (ie payment of rent). So if you offer to take the land, the owner accepts and you pay rent, a legal contract exists, even if there is no paperwork.

However, not something I would ever recommend. If you go for it, get it in writing, definitely. As others have said you may end up having to repair and maintain the fences and land. If you do go for it, get a proper inventory of the land prepared and please dont laugh, I do this all the time. Make a note of broken fences, state of the land etc, just to protect yourself. Also, do a check via Land Registry on who owns the land and even if horses can be put upon it, strange, but true with some land covenants.

I would add that renting land is not my particular field of expertise - its residential letting, but as we trade in a fairly rural location, we do end up handling land fairly often.
 
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