Agricultural Holdings
Agricultural holdings in Scotland and the relationship between landlords and tenant farmers have been regulated by a series of Acts of Parliament since the 19th century (Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1883).
Prior to the most recent Act in 2003, the only forms of formal farm tenancies permitted within the legislation were either: a seasonal let of less than one year, or a secure "1991" tenancy, which is an arrangement where the tenant farmer has a long term protected tenancy that is heritable and can only be broken by non-payment of rent or any other material breach of the tenancy conditions. These type of tenancy arrangements had remained very much unchanged since 1949.