A TENANT farmer who contested his landlord's demand for a £9,000 rent rise has emerged from the Scottish Land Court defeated, facing a £21,500 rent increase and a legal bill that is thought to exceed £100,000.
What might appear a victory for the landowning lobby - creating a legal precedent that could be used to justify increases to the rents of many more farms - has come at a sensitive time for the tenanted sector.
Scotland is already heading towards land and tenancy reform, with the government committed to bringing forward land reform legislation within this term of the Scottish Parliament, and the more specific Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group to issue its interim report later this week.
Recently landowner representatives have been calling on tenants to 'get around the table and talk' towards mutually agreed voluntary reforms that might pre-empt more radical changes being imposed from above.
As such, the result of the legal confrontation between farmer John Elliot, of Roxburgh Mains, Kelso, and his landlord, the Duke of Roxburghe's Estate, arrived like a hand grenade during a tense battlefield ceasefire.
The Scottish Tenant Farmers Association said that the Scottish legal system and tenancy legislation had yet again failed in the setting of a viable farm rent, and called for radical change to the legislation governing rent reviews.
STFA chairman Christopher Nicholson said: "The Scottish Land Court's decision to fix the rent for John Elliot's Roxburgh Mains Farm on the Duke of Roxburghe's Estate at £48,982, a dramatic increase of over 78 per cent, will deal a devastating blow to Scotland's tenanted sector.
He added: "If a tenant such as John Elliot, himself an experienced and respected farm arbiter with experience of conducting rent reviews, can fall foul of the system then there is little hope for the rest of Scotland's tenants."
By contrast, Roxburghe Estates sought to paint itself as the more reasonable party in the dispute.
Factor Roddy Jackson said: "We are relieved that, barring an appeal by the tenant, this long-running case is now at an end. We made every effort to avoid this process, which has incurred significant time and cost.
"We had hoped the rent for this farm could have been agreed without the need to go to court," said Mr Jackson.
"Whilst the rent fixed by the court represents a significant increase on the existing rent, the Land Court states that the rent is realistic, and is based on the evidence of the open market rent of one comparable farm and the agreed rents negotiated with the tenants of five other comparable farms.
"We take no satisfaction from having to go to court in order to fix a farm rent," he added.
"The estate has recently reached agreement with all of our other lowground farm tenants due for a rent review in May 2015.
"That agreement is for a phased rent adjustment from that date until 2018.
"I am pleased that it has been possible to do this for 20 lowground farms in advance of the recent Land Court decision."
For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday's issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
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