In the Walloon Region, 70% of the 740,000 hectares of agricultural land are farmed under tenancy arrangements. A few thousand private and public landowners are therefore directly affected by the legislation on agricultural tenancies.
What is a farm lease?
A farm lease forms the main framework for the contractual relationship between a farmer (the lessee) and a private or public owner of agricultural land or buildings (the lessor). This contract entitles the farmer to use the leased land to carry out their farming activities.
Legislation on agricultural leases brought up to date
This legislation, which dates back to 1969 and was last amended in 1988, had become outdated several years ago and had come in for considerable criticism from both property owners and operators. Indeed, the situation on the ground had changed and there was a clear need for it to be updated.
On 1 January 2020, a new reform came into force. The aim of this reform is not only to take account of the changing needs of landlords and tenants, but also to revitalise and strengthen their relationships. It also aims to encourage landowners not to abandon their land and to make it easier for young farmers to gain access to land.
A number of improvements have been made to this reform
- Drawing up a tenancy agreement and its compulsory registration, thereby guaranteeing the start and end dates of the contract.
- Carrying out a pre-tenancy inventory to improve tenant-landlord relations.
- The end of the right of first refusal for farmers aged over 67 who are in receipt of a retirement pension and have no serious prospective buyer.
- The penalty applicable in the event of unauthorised subletting.
- An end to abusive preferential sales.
- The requirement to notify changes in land ownership.
- Termination of the tenancy to sell part of the leased plot in order to address a problematic personal situation on the part of the landlord.
- Leave for retired policyholders.
For lessees and lessors who entered into a verbal agricultural tenancy agreement before 2020, a transitional period is in place until 31 December 2024 to allow them to comply with the new written reform.
Standard model tenancy agreements for private and public landlords
In November 2021, the Walloon Minister for Agriculture, Willy Borsus, announced the release of standard farm lease agreement templates for private and public landowners.
Through these measures, the Walloon Government aims to support landlords by providing tools and thereby encouraging them to use written agreements when entering into, amending or renewing a tenancy agreement.
Standard templates for property condition reports and tenancy agreements
Several templates are available; these are for guidance only, as the information they contain is not exhaustive. Within the established legal framework, both parties are always free to use their own template.
- Template for a move-in inventory
- «Standard» model tenancy agreement applicable to any public landlord
- Standard tenancy agreement template applicable to all private landlords
- Model end-of-career tenancy agreement applicable to all public landlords
- Model end-of-career tenancy agreement applicable to all private landlords
- Model short-term tenancy agreement applicable to all public landlords
- Model short-term tenancy agreement applicable to all private landlords
Standard letter templates relating to notifications of transfers, notices of termination, expiry of leases and other matters are available on the Walloon agriculture portal.