Grass Let - help!

[CallMeATechnophobe]

Hi.

We have a large field and someone has approached us to rent part of it, about 5 acres, for DIY grass let for 2 horses. We have water, no electric, a hard standing track to get to it. It's not currently fenced off from the rest of the field and she is talking about putting a field shelter on it.

My question is - how much should I charge and would I need insurance, I assume public liability? I've no idea where to start!

We are in the South East.

Many thanks x

If it's anything to go by - I rent 2 acres at a cost of £60 per horse per month (i.e. £120 per month as my landlord charges by the horse not by the acreage). I'm in the north though and even by our standards that is cheap. There's no electric, but he supplies fencing and field shelters and does maintenance like harrowing & rolling, hedge cutting, fertilising, removing muck heap etc.

I don't have a rental agreement with him as he is very old school and lets his land purely on personal recommendation. However, in your position I would think about a tenancy agreement or grazing licence of some sort, just to cover yourself. You would have to pay fees but it might be worth approaching a local land agency as they will have a lot of experience of dealing with this kind of situation.

Down south about it's usually £20-25 p/week p/horse at an established (grass) livery set-up without any special facilities such as a school (which would bump the price up significantly) - you don't get any feed/hay included in that (although usually the owner will supply and store hay over winter for a fee, makes it much more sensible than everyone buying their own), but yard owner usually does all field maintenance including harrowing, re-seeding, rolling, dividing the fields up seasonally to prevent over-grazing and allow resting of the grass, fence maintenance, provision of field shelters, water troughs and hay feeders, and removal of the muck heap - this is quite a lot of work to keep the fields nice and prevent them becoming poached and trashed. Livery tenants are usually responsible for removing muck from the field and weeding (particularly to remove ragwort) regularly. The yard owner/manager doesn't take any responsibility for care of the horses per se, but quite often lives on site/farms or has a business on another part of the land, and so will have a degree of responsibility to notify owners of any emergencies and for security etc...

I am guessing if you just want to rent the field totally as is and don't want to do any of the above you would charge less on the basis the tenant takes care of all the maintenance - but you would want to ensure they do take care of the land and don't just do nothing and leave it completely trashed after a season or 2 for you to sort out - I don't know if it's possible to include this in some kind of contract although would probably be difficult to enforce? Also if the tenant wants to install a field shelter would you stipulate this should be taken away with her when she leaves?

Do you know the person, because I can see potential problems. Good fencing is expensive, you may end up with electric fencing which is unsightly and has to be constantly maintained or the horses get out. If the person does not live close by you may end up having to try to catch them and having complaints if they get into a farmer’s fields. Will the owners turn up twice a day to check the horses. Will they pick up poo/remove ragwort. In the winter will they continue to look after the animals because they will need food/hay. Will they disrupt your life with early and late visits.

I know I sound cynical but a know most people look after horses well, but many don’t. The last thing you want is they are abandoned because the owner has run out of money.

Thank you for your help everyone, we've decided to leave it - think it could be more aggro than it's worth sadly! Plus the field gets so wet in the winter, poor horses will be up to their knees in mud... which leads to hard standing being put in etc.... just seems to be more problems than positives!

Please reconsider. There is a desperate shortage of paddocks, in the south east particularly. It can be a really positive experience. I've just rented mine out because my horses have sadly gone now. I had a think and worked out our village has lost 3 other paddocks in the last 30 years and the local liveries are rammed. If you are careful in the choice of tenants, who will rotate the grazing and spray and fertilise and reseed when it's necessary they can be a real bonus. Electric fencing isn't particularly unsightly and it's very easy to ram posts in for a semi permanent electric fence. Most owners don't mind mud, but if it is very bad you could just let it for summer grazing to somebody who needs to rest their own field.