Agricultural lease agreements
To take an agricultural lease (pachten) is to rent agricultural land and/or farms with the intention of farming. Do you lease a piece of land or agricultural buildings larger than 1 hectare? You should determine the lease through an agreement between you (the lessee) and the owner (the lessor). You must have the agreement assessed. In the Netherlands, the maximum lease prices are set by law.
Have your lease agreement checked
You must have your lease agreement checked by the Dutch Agricultural Tenancies Authority (Grondkamer, in Dutch). You do this within 2 months of entering into the agreement. How you send the lease agreement (in Dutch) depends on the type of lease:
- A lease agreement with an agreed lease of 6 years or less should be sent online to RVO (in Dutch). You need to register with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) for this.
The Dutch Agricultural Tenancies Authority checks if the agreements in the lease comply with the laws and regulations. You pay a fee (griffierechten) for the assessment.
When not to have your lease checked
You do not need to have your lease assessed if it concerns:
- detached land (piece of land without a farmhouse used for agriculture), smaller than 1 hectare
- garden land (used for greenhouse cultivation or as grassland, arable land, or orchard), smaller than 0.5 hectare in the provinces of North Holland and South Holland (Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland)
Maximum lease prices
The maximum lease prices are set annually on 1 July, based on a set of standards (in Dutch). Do you have an ongoing lease as a lessee? You and the lessor can decide together to not recalculate the lease price, and use the annual rate of change (jaarlijks veranderpercentage) to adjust the lease price by that percentage. The lessor may decide to not increase the lease price at all. In that case, they must let you know in writing.
The maximum lease price applies to all forms of lease, except:
- liberalised lease (in Dutch) for 6 years or less
- cultivation lease (for 1 or 2 years for detached land, in Dutch)If the lease price is changed, it does not have to be assessed by the Dutch Agricultural Tenancies Authority.
Changing or terminating a lease agreement
Do you as a lessor or lessee want to change or dissolve (end) a current lease agreement (in Dutch)? For instance, to change the conditions or because of a death? In some cases you have to ask Dutch Agricultural Tenancies Authority for permission. To do so you send in an amendment to the lease agreement (wijziging pachtovereenkomst, in Dutch). You have to pay a fee for this.
Please note: you do not report the annual adjustment to the lease price with an amending agreement.