Agricultural tenancies
This content applies to England only.
Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland
If your home is provided by your employer, this is known as 'tied' accommodation because it is tied to the specific job you do. If you are a farm worker, this type of accommodation is referred to as an 'agricultural tenancy' or an 'agricultural occupancy'. There are different kinds of agricultural tenancy, or occupancy, each of which give you different rights.
Not all farm workers who live on agricultural land are agricultural tenants. If you live on land which you rent and farm yourself, then you may well have an agricultural holding and not an agricultural tenancy. If you are in this situation, your rights are not covered on this website so you should get advice about any problems you are having from a local advice centre or solicitor - use our directory to find one.
Do I have an agricultural tenancy?
In order to be an agricultural tenancy your tenancy will need to meet certain conditions:
You must live in a self-contained home
If you share a house with your landlord, or you don’t have control over who enters the accommodation, because for example, your landlord genuinely needs to enter the property without your permission, you will not have an agricultural tenancy.
Your employer must own the home you live in, or have arranged for you to live there so that you can do your work.
If you are employed by the Government, the royal family, a local council, the Forestry Commission, or a housing association you will not have an agricultural tenancy. However, if this is the case, you may have separate housing rights through the law or rights set out in your contract of employment.
The job you do must meet certain criteria
To be an agricultural worker you will need to:
- work for 35 hours or more a week – unless you have a permit to work shorter hours as a result of an industrial injury
- work for at least some of the time on maintaining crops, livestock, forestry, or tractors, and other equipment (market gardens and plant nurseries are also included)
- have been employed in agriculture for 91 weeks of the last 104, this includes time from previous employment, as well as paid holiday and sick leave. You need not have been employed by the same employer, or worked on the same farm to meet this requirement.
There are other situations where you may have an agricultural tenancy. Use our directory to find an adviser in your area to help you work out what kind of tenancy you have.
If you work on a fish farm, or keep animals for sport you are not considered to be an agricultural worker for these purposes.
What type of agricultural tenancy do I have?
Remember that you have to meet certain conditions in order to qualify as an agricultural tenant - see above for more information.
If you are an agricultural tenant, the type of tenancy you have will depend on when your tenancy started.
Tenancies starting before 15 January 1989
If your agricultural tenancy started before 15 January 1989 you will have a regulated tenancy. This is also known as a ‘statutory’ or ‘protected’ agricultural tenancy. It means that you have many of the same rights as a private tenant with a regulated tenancy.
If you have a regulated tenancy, your right to live in your home does not end even if you lose your job, retire, or if the property is sold. After you die, your tenancy can even be passed to your spouse/partner, or a member of your family in certain circumstances.
In most cases, the only way that your landlord can evict you from your home will be to supply you with suitable alternative accommodation. Accommodation will only be considered 'suitable' if the new tenancy is another regulated tenancy, or a secure tenancy provided by a local council.
Tenancies starting after 15 January 1989
If your agricultural tenancy started after 15 January 1989 you may have an assured agricultural tenancy. Alternatively, you may have a shorthold agricultural occupancy which is similar to an assured shorthold tenancy and gives you fewer housing rights. You will only have a shorthold agricultural occupancy if your landlord/employer gave you a written notice saying that the occupancy was a shorthold at the start of your tenancy.
The rights and the grounds for possession of an assured agricultural tenancy are similar to those for assured tenancies, except that unlike assured tenancies the right to live in the accommodation does not end when the job comes to an end in the case of an agricultural tenancy. Once you become an agricultural tenant, you keep that tenancy even if you lose your job.
If you have an agricultural tenancy, then you will have the right to stay in the property unless a court makes an eviction order against you .
What happens if you leave your job?
Agricultural tenants
If you are an agricultural tenant (see above) and you retire, or you lose your job, then you will still keep your tenancy and the housing rights of that tenancy.
Other tenants
If you are an agricultural worker but you do not have an agricultural tenancy, you will have less protection from eviction. However, your landlord will probably still need a court order to evict you, unless you live as a lodger in her/his home.
Will I have to pay rent?
Many agricultural tenants do not pay rent. However, if you do pay for your accommodation the amount of rent that you need to pay will depend on a lot of different factors including the type of agricultural tenancy that you have.
Protected agricultural tenancy
If you have a protected or agricultural tenancy, your landlord will normally not charge you any rent, but this will not affect the rights that you have to live in the property. When you do stop working for your landlord they will normally start to charge you rent.
You can either come to an agreement with your landlord over the level of rent you pay, or you can ask a rent assessment committee to set what is known as a fair rent. This is likely to be lower than a private rent.
Assured agricultural tenancy and assured shorthold
If you have an assured agricultural tenancy you will normally not need to pay rent when you are working for your landlord, and this will not affect your rights as a tenant. If your landlord does charge you a market rent, this will normally be set at an agreed amount.
When you stop working for your landlord they can start to charge you rent, even if you did not pay any rent before. Your landlord can charge you what is known as a market rent, which is effectively the ‘going rate’ for the size and type of accommodation you live in.
You would normally need to come to an agreement with your landlord over your level of rent you pay. If you think the amount of rent your landlord wants you to pay is unfair, you can ask a rent officer to set the rent level. You should get advice before you ask them to do this, as rent officers can put the rent up as well as down.
If you do not agree on the amount of rent set by your landlord, you should normally do this within one month of getting notice of the rent your landlord’s proposed rent increase. If you have already agreed to pay the amount your landlord asks for, you cannot ask the rent officer to look at it later on.
Get advice immediately if your landlord asks you to pay an amount that you will not be able to afford or think is unfair. You can use our directory to find an adviser in your area.
What happens if I die?
You can pass an agricultural tenancy on to your husband, wife, or partner if s/he is living with you when you die, but you can only do this once.
If you are not married and you do not have a partner, you can pass the tenancy on to a member of your family, provided that they have been living with you in the property for at least two years.
What if my landlord wants me to leave?
If you have an assured (which is not a shorthold agricultural occupancy) or regulated agricultural tenancy you will only have to leave your property if a court issues a possession order against you telling you to leave.
Your landlord will only be able to get a possession order against you in certain circumstances, including:
- if you do not pay the rent (there may be rules on how much and for how long)
- if you break a condition of the tenancy
- if you cause a nuisance
- if you damage your home
- if your landlord or local council provide suitable alternative accommodation for you (see above).
Get advice if you are threatened with eviction for any reason. You can call our helpline or use our directory to find an adviser in your area.
If you lose your job, or leave to start another one, or you cannot work because of illness or injury then you can still stay in the property. However, if your landlord needs your home for another farm worker, then he/she must either offer you alternative accommodation or if s/he is unable to do this s/he can ask your council to re-house you. Your council will then need to do everything it can to find you somewhere else to live.
