Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976
| Year | 1976 |
Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976
1976 CHAPTER 80
An Act to afford security of tenure for agricultural workers housed by their employers, and their successors; to make further provision as to the rents and other conditions of tenure of such persons, including amendments of the Rent Act 1968; to impose duties on housing authorities as respects agricultural workers and their successors; and for purposes connected with those matters.
[22nd November 1976]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Preliminary
1 Interpretation and commencement.
(1) In this Act—
(a ) ‘agriculture’ includes—
(i) dairy-farming and livestock keeping and breeding (whether those activities involve the use of land or not);
(ii) the production of any consumable produce which is grown for sale or for consumption or other use for the purposes of a trade or business or of any other undertaking (whether carried on for profit or not);
(iii) the use of land as grazing, meadow or pasture land or orchard or osier land;
(iv) the use of land for market gardens or nursery grounds; and
(b ) ‘forestry’ includes—
(i) the use of land for nursery grounds for trees, and
(ii) the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the use of land for other agricultural purposes.
(2) For the purposes of the definition in subsection (1)(a )above—
‘consumable produce’ means produce grown for consumption or other use after severance or separation from the land or other growing medium on or in which it is grown;
‘livestock’ includes any animal which is kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the carrying on of any agricultural activity, and for the purposes of this definition ‘animal’ includes bird but does not include fish.
(3) The expressions listed in column 1 of Schedule 1 to this Act have for the purposes of this Act the meanings given by the provisions shown in column 2 of the Schedule.
(4) In this Act ‘relevant licence’ and ‘relevant tenancy’ have the meanings given by Schedule 2 to this Act.
(5) Schedule 3 to this Act, of which—
(a ) Part I is for determining for the purposes of this Act—
(i) whether a person is a qualifying worker,
(ii) whether a person is incapable of whole-time work in agriculture, or work in agriculture as a permit worker, in consequence of a qualifying injury or disease, and
(iii) whether a dwelling-house is in qualifying ownership,
(b ) Part II postpones the operation of this Act in relation to certain persons employed in forestry, and
(c ) Part III contains supplementary provisions,
shall have effect.
(6) This Act shall, subject to subsection (7) below, come into force on such date as the Secretary of State and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food acting jointly may by order contained in a statutory instrument appoint, and that date is in this Act called ‘the operative date’.
(7) Subsection (6) above has effect subject to the said Part II of Schedule 3 to this Act.
Protected occupancies
2 Protected occupiers in their own right.
(1) Where a person has, in relation to a dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy and the dwelling-house is in qualifying ownership, or has been in qualifying ownership at any time during the subsistence of the licence or tenancy (whether it was at the time a relevant licence or tenancy or not), he shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house if—
(a ) he is a qualifying worker, or
(b ) he has been a qualifying worker at any time during the subsistence of the licence or tenancy (whether it was at the time a relevant licence or tenancy or not).
(2) Where a person has, in relation to a dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy and the dwelling-house is in qualifying ownership, or has been in qualifying ownership at any time during the subsistence of the licence or tenancy (whether it was at the time a relevant licence or tenancy or not), he shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house if and so long as he is incapable of whole-time work in agriculture, or work in agriculture as a permit worker, in consequence of a qualifying injury or disease.
(3) A person who has, in relation to a dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house if—
(a ) immediately before the licence or tenancy was granted, he was a protected occupier or statutory tenant of the dwelling-house in his own right, or
(b ) the licence or tenancy was granted in consideration of his giving up possession of another dwelling-house of which he was such an occupier or such a tenant.
(4) In this Act—
‘protected occupier in his own right’ means a person who is a protected occupier by virtue of subsection (1), (2) or (3) above;
‘statutory tenant in his own right’ means a person who is a statutory tenant by virtue of section 4(1) below and who, immediately before he became such a tenant, was a protected occupier in his own right.
3 Protected occupiers by succession.
(1) Subsection (2) or, as the case may be, subsection (3) below shall have effect for determining what person (if any) is a protected occupier of a dwelling-house after the death of a person (‘the original occupier’) who, immediately before his death, was a protected occupier of the dwelling-house in his own right.
(2) Where the original occupier was a man who died leaving a widow who was residing with him at his death then, after his death, if the widow has, in relation to the dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy, she shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house.
This subsection is framed by reference to the case where the original occupier was a man, but is to be read as applying equally in the converse case where the original occupier was a woman.
(3) Where—
(a ) the original occupier was not a person who died leaving a surviving spouse who was residing with him at his death, but
(b ) one or more persons who were members of his family were residing with him at the time of and for the period of six months immediately before his death,
then, after his death, if that person or, as the case may be, any of those persons has, in relation to the dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy, that person or, as the case may be, such one of the persons having such a licence or tenancy as may be decided by agreement, or in default of agreement by the county court, shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house.
(4) A person who has, in relation to the dwelling-house, a relevant licence or tenancy shall be a protected occupier of the dwelling-house if—
(a ) immediately before the licence or tenancy was granted, he was a protected occupier or statutory tenant of the dwelling-house by succession, or
(b ) the licence or tenancy was granted in consideration of his giving up possession of another dwelling-house of which he was such an occupier or such a tenant.
(5) In this Act—
‘protected occupier by succession’ means a person who is a protected occupier by virtue of subsection (2), (3) or (4) above;
‘statutory tenant by succession’ means a person who is a statutory tenant by virtue of section 4(1) below and who, immediately before he became such a tenant, was a protected occupier by succession, or a person who is a statutory tenant by virtue of section 4(3) or (4) below.
(6) A dwelling-house is, in this Act, referred to as subject to a protected occupancy where there is a protected occupier of it.
Statutory tenancies
4 Statutory tenants and tenancies.
(1) Subject to section 5 below, where a person ceases to be a protected occupier of a dwelling-house on the termination, whether by notice to quit or by virtue of section 16(3) of this Act or otherwise, of his licence or tenancy, he shall, if and so long as he occupies the dwelling-house as his residence, be the statutory tenant of it.
(2) Subject to section 5 below, subsection (3), or, as the case may be, subsection (4) below shall have effect for determining what person (if any) is the statutory tenant of a dwelling-house at any time after the death of a person (‘the original occupier’) who was, immediately before his death, a protected occupier or statutory tenant of the dwelling-house in his own right.
(3) If the original occupier was a man who died leaving a widow who was residing with him at his death then, after his death, unless the widow is a protected occupier of the dwelling-house by virtue of section 3(2) above, she shall be the statutory tenant if and so long as she occupies the dwelling-house as her residence.
This subsection is framed by reference to the case where the original occupier was a man, but is to be read as applying equally in the converse case where the original occupier was a woman.
(4) Where—
(a ) the original occupier was not a person who died leaving a surviving spouse who was residing with him at his death, but
(b ) one or more persons who were members of his family were residing with him at the time of and for the period of six months immediately before his death,
then, after his death, unless that person or, as the case may be, one of those persons is...
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