Moll v MacGregor: 1990

(Scottish Land Court) The parties had agreed a rent for an agricultural holding which was to vary annually in accordance with the Retail Price Index.
Held: ‘The main purposes of the 1949 Act were to provide for security of tenure, compensation at outgo and a degree of rent control. The rental provisions are thus crucial ones which include a public as well as a purely private element.’ The court considered the mandatory language of the statutory provisions: ‘Having now considered the imperative tenor not only of the 1949 Act (as amended), but also of the subsidiary order governing rental arbitrations, the court conclude that it is not open to parties, whether under the original lease or any subsequent agreement, to contract out of the statutory rental provisions laid down in the public interest for arbiters to follow. These mandatory provisions, based on the open market criterion discounted for scarcity, were obviously introduced with a view to achieving some degree of consistency in farm renting. Parties can of course still agree on a new rent themselves and provided they act on this it will no doubt be effectively binding between them. What they cannot legally do, however, is to contract completely out of the statutory provisions so that, in the event of disagreement, one side or the other is deprived from having recourse to a rent review at the stated period and on the statutory terms. For that would be to reinstate the mischief which these statutory provisions were designed to remedy.’

Citations:

[1990] SLT 59

Statutes:

Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1949

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Cited by:

CitedMason v Boscawen ChD 18-Dec-2008
The landlord had opted to charge VAT on part of the rent. The tenant fell into arrears and now challenged a notice to quit which included the VAT. The court was asked what constituted ‘rent’ for the purposes of a demand for rent founding a notice to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Landlord and Tenant, Agriculture

Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.279104