Arbitration case empowers tenants

A RECENT arbitration case may give some hope to tenants on county council farms who don‘t want to retire at 65.
 
On reaching the age of 65, tenants whose agreements started after July 12, 1984 and before farm business tenancies began in 1995 can face a notice to quit from their local authority landlord.
 
In this particular case, a tenant did receive such a notice, but argued that the County Council landlord had not offered “suitable alternative accommodation”.

The offer from the District Council did not provide conclusive evidence that suitable alternative accommodation would be available, as the landlord is required to do under the legislation governing Case A notices.
 
As this was a specific requirement of the legislation, the arbitrator ruled that the Notice to Quit had no effect.

The landlord was required to pay both the arbitrator‘s costs and the costs of the tenant from the date of the service of the Notice to Quit.