Tenant’s Improvements Amnesty Deadline – Extended to 12 December 2020

The amnesty is a one-off opportunity to clarify, and have agreed for the record, the improvements which the tenant carried out and which in future will be discounted from the ‘productive capacity’ test for rent review, and on which compensation will be payable at waygo.  A 3-year period had been allowed for the process, whereby the landlord and tenant agree the list of improvements, and with this due to end on 12 June 2020.  Many farmers took advantage of this opportunity however there were a number of tenants with outstanding cases and there were concerns that the inability of farmers to host site visits due to coronavirus restrictions would lead to the deadline being missed.

Today it was announced that the deadline is extended to 12 December 2020, an additional 6 months.  The Tenant Farming Commissioner, Bob McIntosh said:  “All parties are urged to use such means to keep the process moving so that the current queue of agreements waiting to be finalised by June, is not simply moved to December.  “I urge all parties to complete amnesty discussions as soon as reasonably possible and to adopt a pragmatic approach to reaching agreement on what constitutes an eligible improvement.”

The Scottish Land Commission has excellent resources and advice to help you available here.