Agricultural Ties and Certificates of Lawfulness explained

An agricultural tie, also known as an Agricultural Occupancy Condition, is a planning condition which restricts the use of a residential property to use by an agricultural worker or their relatives. It will be attached to the planning permission which authorised the erection of the dwelling in question.

The rationale for imposing such a condition is generally that construction of a new residential dwelling in the open countryside would not be permitted by local planning policy, but for the needs of the agricultural business.

The Agricultural Occupancy Condition will typically be worded along the following lines:

“The occupation of the dwelling shall be limited to a person solely or mainly employed, or last employed, in the locality in agriculture or in forestry, or a widow or widower of such a person and to any resident dependants.”

An Agricultural Occupancy Condition will continue to apply to the dwelling irrespective of the current owner of the property, or indeed any changes to the farm.

Where the occupiers of the dwelling in question do not comply with the condition, because they do not work, or did not last work, in agriculture, then a breach would occur which could be susceptible to planning enforcement action.

Crucially though, if there has been a continuing breach of the condition for ten or more years, then the breach becomes immune from enforcement action (meaning the local authority are effectively timed-out from taking any action) and would therefore become lawful in planning terms.

Where a breach has occurred for ten years or more, the way to definitively confirm the lawfulness of this breach is by the submission of a Certificate of Lawfulness application (also known as a ‘Lawful Development Certificate’) to the local planning authority.

In order for such an application to be granted, it will need to comprise evidence that demonstrates, on the balance of probabilities, that the breach has in fact occurred throughout the requisite ten year period. Typically, such evidence will be provided in the form of a statutory declaration with relevant supporting documentation exhibited, which may include pay slips or other evidence of employment history, Council tax statements and property deeds.

Making such an application can be a significant step for the owner of the dwelling, as it is often said that the imposition of an Agricultural Occupancy Condition can reduce the value of a property by one-third. Consequently, if a Certificate is granted confirming that the breach of the Agricultural Occupancy Condition is lawful, this can clearly be of considerable value to an owner.

However, making a Certificate application is not without its issues. If the local planning authority refuse the Certificate application, either because the evidence is insufficient or they do not consider the breach has arisen for the requisite ten-year period, the occupation of the dwelling could then itself potentially be subject to enforcement action, which has been drawn to the attention of the local planning authority by the submission of the application. This is why any potential Certificate application needs to be sufficiently robust.

There can also be particular nuances as to the question of whether a condition has been breached. For example, where the property has, for short periods of time, been vacant during the period in question does that mean the breach has ceased and a new ten-year period will be required; this will often depend on the specific facts.

Whilst the time scales to actually determine the application are likely to vary between local planning authorities (depending on resources and available planning officers), Certificates should generally be determined within two-three months from submission.

If the local planning authority refuse the application, then an appeal to the Secretary of State can be made. It could take up to a year to go through the appeal process and obtain a decision on appeal.

Finally, it should be noted that the effect of a Certificate is not to remove the existing Agricultural Occupancy Condition. The Certificate simply confirms that the breach, at the point in time the application is made, is lawful. This means that if the breach of the condition ceases, either because the property is vacant for a sustained period of time or is subsequently occupied by someone who worked or last worked in agriculture, then potentially a whole new ten year breach would need to arise before it became lawful again.