A group of land agency firms has committed to “best practice” when conducting farm rent reviews.
The commitment, which has been sent to the Scottish Government’s Agricultural Holdings Legislation Review Group and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, comes in light of recent criticism over the conduct of land agents in the tenant farming sector.
It states: “There is a clear responsibility on land agents to demonstrate high professional and business standards and our firms wish to reaffirm that we are wholly committed to the implementation of these standards.
“We are acutely aware of the polarised and sensitive debate around the tenant farm sector and especially landlord-tenant relationships. Land agents have been criticised, rightly or wrongly, for their approach to these matters.”
The firms said they wanted to make clear their “unwavering support for the highest standards of professional practice” and said recent claims that land agents were clumsy were unjust.
They also said they supported the recently published rent review initiative from NFU Scotland, the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association (STFA) and Scottish Land and Estates.
The STFA welcomed the commitment from the land agents and said it expected agents to follow guidelines to demand “sensible and reasonable rents”.
STFA spokesman Angus McCall said: “As a body representing tenant farmers’ interest, STFA has frequently expressed the view that land agents’ behaviour often lies at the heart of poor relationships between landlords and tenants.
“This is particularly the case where estates are factored by firms of land agents rather than residential factors and there is little contact with the tenants.”
“Rent reviews inevitably put a strain on relationships, especially when an outside land agent is parachuted in to conduct the rent review with a mission to achieve as large a rent increase as possible regardless of the state of farming or other concerns the tenant may have.”
The nine companies which have issued the commitment are: Bell Ingram, Bowlts, CKD Galbraith, Davidson and Robertson, G.M. Thomson, Peter Graham & Associates, Savills, Smiths Gore and Strutt & Parker.