Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1949

Special provisions affecting market gardens as regards compensation and fixtures

65 Effect of agreement to let or treat an agricultural holding as a market garden

(1) In the case of an agricultural holding in respect of which it is agreed by an agreement in writing made on or after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, that the holding shall be let or treated as a market garden—

(a) the provisions of this Act shall apply as if improvements of a kind specified in the Fourth Schedule thereto begun before the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, were included among the improvements specified in Part III of the Second Schedule thereto, as if improvements of such a kind begun on or after that day and before the first day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, were included among the improvements specified in Part III of the Third Schedule thereto, and as if improvements of such a kind begun on or after the said first day of November were included among the improvements specified in Part III of the First Schedule thereto ;

(b) section fourteen of this Act shall extend to every fixture or building affixed or erected by the tenant to or upon the holding or acquired by him since the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred, for the purposes of his trade or business as a market gardener;

(c) it shall be lawful for the tenant to remove all fruit trees and fruit bushes planted by him on the holding and not permanently set out, but if the tenant does not remove such fruit trees and fruit bushes before the termination of his tenancy they shall remain the property of the landlord and the tenant shall not be entitled to any compensation in respect thereof; and

(d) the right of an incoming tenant to claim compensation in respect of the whole or part of an improvement which he has purchased may be exercised although the landlord has not consented in writing to the purchase.

(2) Where under a lease current on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, an agricultural holding was at that date in use or cultivation as a market garden with the knowledge of the landlord, and the tenant thereof had then carried out thereon, without having received previously to the carrying out thereof a written notice of dissent from the landlord, an improvement of the kind specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Act (other than one consisting of such an alteration of a building as did not constitute an enlargement thereof) the provisions of this section shall apply in respect of the holding as if it had been agreed in writing after that date that the holding should be let or treated as a market garden, so however that the improvements in respect of which compensation is payable under those provisions as so applied shall include improvements carried out before as well as improvements carried out after that date:

Provided that where such tenancy was a tenancy from year to year, the compensation payable in respect of such an improvement as aforesaid shall be such (if any) as could have been claimed if this Act had not passed.

(3) Where the land to which such agreement relates or so used and cultivated, consists of part of an agricultural holding only, this section shall apply as if that part were a separate holding.

(4) Nothing in this section shall confer a right to compensation for the alteration of a building (not being an alteration constituting an enlargement of the building) where the alteration was begun before the first day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-eight.

66 Power of Secretary of State in default of agreement to treat an agricultural holding as a market garden

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, where the tenant of an agricultural holding intimates to the landlord in writing his desire to carry out on the holding or any part thereof an improvement specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Act, and the landlord refuses, or within a reasonable time fails, to agree in writing that the holding, or that part thereof, shall be treated as a market garden, the Secretary of State may, on the application of the tenant and after affording to the landlord and to the tenant an opportunity to make representations to the Secretary of State, whether in writing or on being heard by a person appointed by the Secretary of State, and after being satisfied that the holding or that part thereof is suitable for the purposes of market gardening, direct that the last foregoing section shall, either in respect of all the improvements specified in the said Fourth Schedule or in respect of some only of those improvements, apply to the holding or to that part thereof, and the said section shall apply accordingly as respects any improvement carried out after the date on which the direction is given.

(2) Where a direction is given under the foregoing subsection, then, if the tenancy is terminated by notice to quit given by the tenant or by reason of the tenant becoming notour bankrupt or executing a trust deed for behoof of his creditors, the tenant shall not be entitled to compensation in respect of improvements specified in the direction unless the tenant not later than one month after the date on which the notice to quit is given or the date of the bankruptcy or the execution of the trust deed, as the case may be, or such later date as may be agreed, produces to the landlord an offer in writing by a substantial and otherwise suitable person (being an offer which is to hold good for a period of three months from the date on which it is produced) to accept a tenancy of the holding from the termination of the existing tenancy thereof, and on the terms and conditions of that tenancy so far as applicable, and, subject as hereinafter provided, to pay to the outgoing tenant all compensation payable under this Act or under the lease, and the landlord fails to accept the offer within three months after the production thereof.

(3) If the landlord accepts any such offer as aforesaid, the incoming tenant shall pay to the landlord on demand all sums payable to him by the outgoing tenant on the termination of the tenancy in respect of rent or breach of contract or otherwise in respect of the holding, and any amount so paid may, subject to any agreement between the outgoing tenant and incoming tenant, be deducted by the incoming tenant from any compensation payable by him to the outgoing tenant.

(4) A direction under subsection (1) of this section may be given subject to such conditions, if any, for the protection of the landlord as the Secretary of State may think fit to attach to the direction, and, without prejudice to the generality of this subsection, where the direction relates to part only of the holding, the direction may, on the application of the landlord, be given subject to the condition that the tenant shall consent to the division of the holding into two parts (one such part being the part to which the direction relates) to be held at rents agreed by the landlord and tenant or in default of agreement determined by arbitration, but otherwise on the same terms and conditions (so far as applicable) as those on which the holding is held.

(5) A new tenancy created by the acceptance of a tenant in accordance with the provisions of this section on the terms and conditions of the existing tenancy shall be deemed for the purposes of section seven of this Act not to be a new tenancy.

67 Agreements as to compensation relating to market gardens

(1) Where an agreement in writing secures to the tenant of an agricultural holding for an improvement for which compensation is payable by virtue of either of the two last foregoing sections fair and reasonable compensation, having regard to the circumstances existing at the time of making the agreement, the compensation so secured shall, as respects that improvement, be substituted for compensation under this Act.

(2) The landlord and the tenant of an agricultural holding who have agreed that the holding shall be let or treated as a market garden may by agreement in writing substitute, for the provisions as to compensation which would otherwise be applicable to the holding, the provisions as to compensation set out in subsections (2) and (3) of the last foregoing section.