The Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1908 enacts-Section 10-‘Where ( a) the landlord of a holding, without, good and sufficient cause and for reasons inconsistent with good estate management, terminates the tenancy by notice to quit . . the tenant upon quitting the holding shall . . be entitled to compensation . . provided that no compensation under this section shall be payable . . ( b) unless the tenant has, within two months after he has received notice to quit . . given to the landlord notice in writing of his intention to claim compensation under this section. . . In the event of any difference arising as to any matter under this section, the difference shall in default of agreement be settled by arbitration. . . ‘ Section 18 (1)-‘Notwithstanding the expiration of the stipulated endurance of any lease the tenancy shall not come to an end unless written notice has been given by either party to the other of his intention to bring the tenancy to an end-( a) in the case of leases for three years and upwards not less than one year nor more than two years before the termination of the lease.’
The lease of a farm for nineteen years provided that-‘notice in writing to quit shall be given on either side two years before the expiry of the lease.’ The lease expired at Whitsunday 1917. On 13th May 1917, the landlord gave notice to quit to the tenant, who acknowledged the notice, and on 30th July intimated in writing that he intended to claim compensation for unreasonable disturbance. Certain negotiations followed, and the tenant subsequently secured the services of an arbiter to assess the compensation. Questions then arose as to the validity of the notice to quit and the sufficiency of the notice of claim. The landlord having raised an action of suspension and interdict to suspend the proceedings for the appointment of the arbiter, and to interdict him and the tenant from proceeding with the application, held ( rev. judgment of the First Division, dub. Lord Finlay) that the arbiter had jurisdiction to determine the validity of the landlord’s notice to quit and of the tenant’s notice of claim.
Lord Buckmaster, Lord Finlay, Lord Dunedin, and Lord Atkinson
[1919] UKHL 220, 56 SLR 220
Bailii
England and Wales
Landlord and Tenant, Agriculture
Updated: 17 January 2022; Ref: scu.632766