Section 18: Irritancy of lease and good husbandry
63.Subsection (1) allows the landlord and tenant of an SLDT or LDT to agree and specify within the lease the grounds that will allow for irritancy of the lease (i.e. termination of the lease by the landlord due to breach of contract by the tenant). However, the remainder of this section also places restrictions on irritancy.
64.Subsection (2) prevents a landlord from being able to irritate a lease and evict the tenant only on grounds of the tenant’s failure to reside on the land.
65.Subsection (3) and (4) define "good husbandry" for leases where failure to use the land in accordance with the rules of good husbandry is used as a basis for irritancy. That definition is by reference to the Sixth Schedule to the Agriculture (Scotland) Act 1948 (c. 45). However, it is also extended to include the carrying out of conservation activities. These activities qualify under this section if they are carried out under a management agreement that has a statutory footing, or in accordance with the conditions of a public grant paid from the Scottish Consolidated Fund or from other sources as specified by the Scottish Ministers by order.
66.Where the tenant of an LDT enters into non-agricultural activities by virtue of the statutory provisions in sections 40 and 41 of the 2003 Act, subsection (5) provides that these activities are to be treated as being in accordance with the rules of good husbandry. Subsections (4) and (5) make similar provision to section 69 of the 2003 Act, which amends the definition of “good husbandry” in section 85 of the 1991 Act for 1991 Act tenancies.
67.Subsections (6) and (7) set out the process by which a landlord may irritate the lease. This requires the landlord to serve notice of at least 2 months of their intention to irritate the lease and remove the tenant.
