Six-year rent review fight 'nears end'

A ruling by the Court of Session has, according to the SFTA, ended the Coulston Trust's attempts to stall the tenant, AC Stoddart & Sons, from having the rent reviewed.

The tenant acquired the tenancy of Colstoun Mains in 1995 when cereal prices were buoyant.

Following successive years of poor returns, as a result of the collapse of grain markets and the after-effects of BSE and the foot-and-mouth outbreak, he served notice on his landlord in 2003 to adjust his rent to take account of prevailing economic conditions.

In passing judgment, the court rebuked the landlord for prolonging the rent review unnecessarily by pursuing groundless pleas that should have been dealt with at the outset. The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, said that "undue and avoidable delay is contrary to the interests of justice" and "it is undesirable that such reviews should remain unresolved long after the review date".

In commenting on the news that this case had now been referred back to the Land Court, STFA chairman Angus McCall observed that this rent review had now been going on far longer than the Second World War and that "if this decision represents the D-Day landing, then roll on VE day".

McCall added that the case "could well run into costs reaching an eye-watering six-figure sum, which is unacceptable and out of all proportion to the potential agricultural income of the holding. It could yet roll into an eighth year, with the worst still to come.

"The experience of this unfortunate tenant illustrates the weakness in a system that allows a young farmer's life to be blighted by years of stress and expensive, unnecessary litigation when all he wants to do is have his rent altered to take account of poor economic returns.

"We need to put a fairer, quicker and affordable system in place, which allows justice for all and allows scarce financial resources to be directed towards the efficient running of the farm rather than swallowed up in legal costs."