Applications for Sucession - How to suceed...
Reported cases on applications for succession under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 are relatively unusual and it was therefore interesting to read about a recent decided case about the future of a holding in Cornwall.
The farm was relatively small at 69 acres but despite this, the tenant managed to maintain at various times a bewildering number of enterprises including horse riding, dairying, beef-rearing, pigs, geese and in more recent times flowers and bulbs!
The first major issue for the Tribunal concerned, unsurprisingly, the horses. It was found that the grazing of horses fell within the definition of agricultural use and it was only the stables themselves that could be considered to be non-agricultural. Thus the Tribunal agreed that the holding was agricultural and the tenancy fell within the 1986 Act.
The way in which the law regards the inter-reaction of farming and horses is not only complex but also inconsistent and this case is certainly another to be filed away in the cabinet for future reference!
However, what is just as interesting about this case is that the landlord was also criticised by the Tribunal for his approach to the litigation. Having initially claimed "greater hardship" the landlord then failed to offer any evidence in support of his claim and he was ordered to pay the costs of the tenant insofar as they related to this aspect of the case.
This is an unusual order for the Agricultural Land Tribunal and is a salutary warning to future litigants who plead a case which they then decide not to pursue. Be warned!