Tenant farmers and landowners in Scotland now have access to a short form arbitration process to deal with disputes over rents.
The process has been developed by the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association (SAAVA) at the request of the Tenant Farmers Forum (TFF).
Martin Hall, president of SAAVA, said: "Our new Short Form Arbitration Process is designed to be a more straightforward and cost effective means of dispute resolution for the agricultural tenanted sector in Scotland.
"SAAVA believes our robust Short Term Arbitration tool will be extremely useful to tenant farmers and landowners.
"We are now focusing on the development of further alternative dispute resolution tools, including making it easier for tenants and landowners to take the Independent Expert approach.
"This work will follow on from discussions in the Rent Review Working Group where there was a clear desire for cheap efficient methods for reviewing, setting and agreeing agricultural rents."
Chris Nicholson, chairman of the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) welcomed the move. He said: "Settling rental disputes is becoming an increasingly time-consuming and expensive exercise, and STFA welcomes SAAVA's initiative to introduce a fast-track and cost-effective arbitration process, and will be encouraging members to make use of the service. Tenants should never feel compelled to agree a rental increase which they believe to be unjustified because the alternative is a long drawn out, costly and stressful legal battle in the Land Court.
"We now look forward to a system of rental determination by an independent expert being developed as the preferred option for most tenant farmers."
Wallets Marts Ltd sold 794 prime lambs in Castle Douglas on Tuesday to a top of £100 per head and 207p per kg to average 180.3p (-27.5p on the week). The 164 cast sheep forward saw ewes sell to £97 for Texels and £55.50 for Blackfaces with the overall average levelling at £50.19 (-71p).
Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd sold 19 prime heifers at Ayr on Tuesday to a top of 250.5p per kg and an average of 234.4p, while 12 prime bullocks peaked at 253p and levelled at 243.9p.
Eighteen prime bulls sold to 247p and averaged 208.6p. In the rough ring, 130 beef cows averaged 137.8p and 79 dairy cows levelled at 115.6p.
Fifteen OTM cattle averaged 194.6p and seven bulls levelled at 150.1p.
There were also 14 dairy cattle that sold to £2300 for a Holstein Friesian heifer and averaged £1700.71 (+£174.71).
The firm went on to sell 669 prime lambs in Newton Stewart yesterday to a top of £90 and 200p to average 180.4p.
The 190 cast sheep forward saw ewes sell to £86.50 for Texels and £54.50 for Blackfaces.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article