General

93 Interpretation.

1

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say—

  • “absolute owner” means the owner or person capable of disposing by disposition or otherwise of the fee simple or dominium utile of the whole interest of or in land, although the land, or his interest therein, is burdened, charged, or encumbered;

  • “agricultural holding” has the meaning assigned to it by section one of this Act;

  • “agricultural unit” means land which is an agricultural unit for the purposes of the M1 Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948;

  • “agriculture” includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes, and “agricultural” shall be construed accordingly;

  • “building” includes any part of a building;

  • “Defence Regulations” means Regulations made under the M2M3 Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts, 1939 and 1940;

  • “fixed equipment” includes any building or structure affixed to land and any works on, in, over or under land, and also includes anything grown on land for a purpose other than use after severance from the land, consumption of the thing grown or of produce thereof, or amenity, and, without prejudice to the foregoing generality, includes the following things, that is to say—

a

all permanent buildings, including farm houses and farm cottages, necessary for the proper conduct of the agricultural holding;

b

all permanent fences, including hedges, stone dykes, gate posts and gates;

c

all ditches, open drains and tile drains, conduits and culverts, ponds, sluices, flood banks and main water courses;

d

stells, fanks, folds, dippers, pens and bughts necessary for the proper conduct of the holding;

e

farm access or service roads, bridges and fords;

f

water and sewerage systems;

g

electrical installations including generating plant, fixed motors, wiring systems, switches and plug sockets;

h

shelter belts;

and references to fixed equipment on land shall be construed accordingly;

  • “former enactment relating to agricultural holdings” means Part I of the M4 Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948, Part II of the M5 Small Landholders and Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1931, the M6 Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1923, and any enactment repealed by the last-mentioned Act;

  • “Land Court” means the Scottish Land Court;

  • “landlord” means any person for the time being entitled to receive the rents and profits or to take possession of any agricultural holding, and includes the executor, administrator, assignee, heir-at-law, legatee, disponee, next-of-kin, guardian, curator bonis or trustee in bankruptcy, of a landlord;

  • “lease” means a letting of land for a term of years, or for lives, or for lives and years, or from year to year;

  • “livestock” includes any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land;

  • “market garden” means a holding, cultivated, wholly or mainly, for the purpose of the trade or business of market gardening;

  • “new improvement” has the meaning assigned to it by subsection (2) of section forty-seven of this Act;

  • “old improvement” has the meaning assigned to it by subsection (2) of section thirty-six of this Act;

  • “1923 Act improvement” and “1931 Act improvement” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by subsection (1) of section thirty-six of this Act;

  • “pasture” includes meadow;

  • “prescribed” means prescribed by the Secretary of State by regulations made by statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament;

  • “produce” includes anything (whether live or dead) produced in the course of agriculture;

  • “tenant” means the holder of land under a lease and includes the executor, administrator, assignee, heir-at-law, legatee, disponee, next-of-kin, guardian, curator bonis, or trustee in bankruptcy, of a tenant;

  • “termination”, in relation to a tenancy, means the termination of the lease by reason of effluxion of time or from any other cause;

  • “Whitsunday” and “Martinmas” in relation to any lease entered into on or after the first day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, mean respectively the twenty-eighth day of May and the twenty-eighth day of November.

2

The provisions ot the Fifth and Sixth Schedules to the M7 Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948, (which have effect respectively for the purpose of determining for the purposes of that Act whether the owner of agricultural land is fulfilling his responsibilities to manage it in accordance with the rules of good estate management and whether the occupier of such land is fulfilling his responsibilities to farm it in accordance with the rules of good husbandry) shall have effect for the purposes of this Act as they have effect for the purposes of that Act.

3

References in this Act to the farming of land include references to the carrying on in relation to the land of any agricultural activity.

4

References in this Act to the use of land for agriculture include, in relation to land forming part of an agricultural unit, references to any use of the land in connection with the farming of the unit.

5

References to the terms, conditions, or requirements of a lease of or of an agreement relating to an agricultural holding shall be construed as including references to any obligations, conditions or liabilities implied by the custom of the country in respect of the holding.

C16

The designations of landlord and tenant shall continue to apply to the parties until the conclusion of any proceedings taken under or in pursuance of this Act in respect of compensation for improvements or under any agreement made in pursuance of this Act.

7

Anything which by or under this Act is required or authorised to be done by, to or in respect of the landlord or the tenant of an agricultural holding may be done by, to or in respect of any agent of the landlord or of the tenant.