The Farm Tenancy Forum (FTF) has recently published a guidance note on creating long-term farm business tenancies (FBTs) in England. The guidance recognises that long term FBTs can provide opportunities to landlords and tenants that short term agreements do not and that it would be helpful for parties wishing to consider long term agreements to have guidance available that flags some of the important points to consider. Of particular interest is the suggested use of a detailed schedule setting out the provisions agreed between the parties for the use and management of the holding which is referred to in the guidance as the Management Plan. The Management Plan is part of the contractual framework between the parties but can and should be reviewed on a regular basis to enable management objectives and responsibilities to evolve over time in response to changes in the wider business environment.
Our Mark Sanders is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) representative on the FTF and chairs the RICS Farm Business Tenancy Monitoring Group, which produces and maintains the RICS suite of template tenancy and licence agreements.
The FTF member organisations have agreed to publish the guidance on their own websites and a link to it on the RICS website is here.
