Rural land and business

Our local knowledge and in-depth experience dealing with rural property means that we have the understanding and skills to act as arbitrators, mediators and expert witnesses. Over the course of our professional lives, we have dealt with a range of rural property matters and have experienced at first hand many situations faced by clients.

This gives us the knowledge we need to speak with authority and diplomacy, and the objectivity to help focus negotiations. Both parties can take comfort in knowing that a third party can help if a settlement has not yet been reached. We can lead the discussion to a quick and fair solution.

The powers of land occupiers are often limited when a utility company or local authority uses statutory powers to enter land. Our compulsory purchase order team act on behalf of acquiring authorities, but we also act for landowners and occupiers against these authorities. Providing there is no conflict of interest, Carter Jonas can act for landowners and occupiers of land affected by works, helping them to achieve the best outcome from an often unwanted user of the land. While financial compensation is important, the main concern to most clients is how practical works will happen on the ground and what can be done at an early stage to lessen the impact on their farming business.

Examples include: re-siting a works compound to a drier site, and negotiating for a whole field to be taken for compensation rather than leaving a thin strip of land, which is not needed for the works. Our experience tells us that land compaction has an impact on the following two or three crops yields and that compaction can’t be removed in one go, no matter what equipment is used. Our specialist team keeps clients up to date on new national schemes or legislative changes that could have an effect.

Our Planning & Development team works on a variety of projects for rural clients, such as new livestock and grain stores, small-scale barn conversions, diversification projects and large-scale developments of land. Our experienced specialists can assist with obtaining planning permission to build new agricultural tied houses and, more commonly in recent years, helping to have the ties removed. Retrospective applications for a change of use to a building or area of land are commonly undertaken by the team. We can advise on a range of elements relating to planning issues, whether that’s landscaping, listed buildings or protected species, and we often help clients to deal with the questions before they are asked, which can result in a reduction in the amount of conditions applied to a granted application.

If necessary, we can challenge conditions or argue against them at appeal. When building a new grain store, for example, we can give practical advice on traffic movements and turning circles. Large-scale development of the countryside is being encouraged by the government, and our specialist strategic land and masterplanning teams can help maximise the potential of a site, whether by helping to agree terms with a promoter or assisting a client to undertake some of the works in promoting a site direct, to achieve a bigger slice of the cake.

Carter Jonas has acted for landlords and tenants for over 150 years, negotiating new leases, reviewing and renewing existing agreements, acting as expert witnesses on technical matters, and advising on matters of dispute. On a daily basis we handle Agricultural Holding Act (AHA) 1986 and Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) Act 1995 agreements, grazing and mowing licences, profit à prendre, and common law licences for storage and access rights. We advise on Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 business tenancies, and we specialise in unusual types of agreement involving land, such as telecom mast agreements.

Every year we act for both landlords and tenants in rent review negotiations and have the experience to go to arbitration if necessary. With a large team of experts across the country, we have other colleagues to call upon and share data with, if a comparable is needed to help win an argument. We also draft and manage residential Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreements. With the support of our residential letting team and specialist solicitors in London, we are always up to date with the latest legislative changes.