Shooting tenant farm

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
A query for those tenants amongst us (or those with knowledge on such matters).

Our landlord has upped his commercial shooting enterprise. The farm has several woodlands dotted around it and these are now all occupied by commercial shoots. The woodlands are not part of the tenancy, the surrounding fields are.

We get on well with the landlord and are on good terms but the shooting aspect has become a bit of an issue.

The individuals who are in the shoot have now taken to (without informing us) driving all their vans and pick ups etc into our fields that surround the woods. They then park wherever they like, exit said vehicles and 'sweep', Rambo style through our AB9 towards the woods, guns out and cocked (not a few metres, they creep through a 5 ha plot in a 30 acre field).

A grass field we don't drive on in the winter to preserve the condition was awash with pick ups racing over it 2 weeks back.

There is obviously the Game Acts and the Wildlife Act etc, which are in our tenancy, as is usual, but this seems a bit off.

We also have a few horses, (with LL permission) and these areas now being ridden roughshod over are where the horses get hacked, so they're either out of bounds or the riders get terrified.

Is all this normal? The shooters aren't entering the land for rodent control, the birds are bred in the woods for commercial purposes. The LL has the shooting rights but this is randoms who've paid to shoot in the woods, strutting all around the farm, guns out.

Do people who buy shooting syndicates off the LL for the adjacent woods have unlimited access to our entire farm as and when they please?

I'm all for give and take but not a fan of taking the pi55.

Any experience?
 

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
We get on well with the landlord and are on good terms but the shooting aspect has become a bit of an issue.
We had this last year, a new shoot moved in and they were full of enthusiasm, kept on driving into areas they didn't have access to. We asked them nicely a few times and then sent a formal letter to landlord who read them the riot act. We now get on much better with the shoot as we know where we both stand.

Best to get ahead of it before it becomes an issue.
 

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
We had this last year, a new shoot moved in and they were full of enthusiasm, kept on driving into areas they didn't have access to. We asked them nicely a few times and then sent a formal letter to landlord who read them the riot act. We now get on much better with the shoot as we know where we both stand.

Best to get ahead of it before it becomes an issue.
Glad you got it sorted, to what extent does 'where they didn't have access to' apply? ie could you decide? This lot seem to think it's open season. My concern is the LL backing them?

We've been here since 1950 and the main wood in question has only hosted a shoot in the last 18 months, never happened before that. We've had 70 years of peace and all of a sudden tools everywhere.
 

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
They had an access map with areas they can drive and walk, they were driving in areas that they only had walking access to. They now ask if they want to drive and we say yes as long as it's not to wet, but they rarely ask as they've got used to walking. You however might be in agent territory. I know my neighbour takes the rights for his farm as he likes the quiet life, can you do the same?
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
Definitely sounds like a sit down with the LL and explain matters. Hopefully he will see where you are coming from and an amicable resolution found.
A good friend rented the shooting rights too his farm in the end. He said it was worth it too control the numpties that had them before.
 
Just bear in mind if your LL has an agent, the agent is likely enjoying a nice brown envelope from time to time.

Shoot syndicates are often dealing in large volumes of cash to evade VAT.
I believe, might be wrong, but if syndicate is non profit making and not advertising, it is not liable to Vat.

It won't be able to reclaim inputs but would not have to charge on sales.
 

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