What is wrong with people...

[TheBullLady]

We've got a pasture lease on a 140 acre property that is up June 1. The property was sold in January with the lease in place, and with a written copy of the lease going to the buyer.

Now it's time to hay. Our cows are running on about 1/2 the place. The owner ("townie.. doesn't know the front end of a cow from the back") had someone out today to look at the pastures for baling. He told him the cows were ruining the hay meadow for cutting, so he closed them out of the pasture. He told my husband today he had someone coming to bale hay.

My husband offered to let him bale three of the four pastures, and we'd put the cows out on the one remaining pasture, if he'd renew the lease for an additional 30 days.... doesn't that sound like a fair deal? The owner said no, he was just going to go ahead and bale. My husband told him he could bale anything he wanted, after June 1st.

We've tried to deal with this guy since he bought the place.. he likes to drive his riding lawn mower all over the pastures.. we've never said a word, even though, according to the lease, he doesn't have the right to be anywhere in the pastures. We've quit using the barn, which is also something that we were to have in the lease. He shouldn't be this stupid.. he owns rental property in town.

He said he's going to call his attorney tonight.. I sure hope he tells him he doesn't have any rights until after the 1st!

Are we being unreasonable?

 

[Crowderfarms]

I'd be telling this feller to back off and stay out of my way til' after 6/1.Too many City Slickers are buying places around here and treating some lease farmers/ranchers the same way.

I'm not a Lawyer, but with the lease being transferred to the new owner, he's violating the terms by wanting to cut the Hay before you've vacated. I'd say Yall are being very reasonable.Stick to your guns, you only have a few days left.

 

[FL Cowboy]

If the new land owner assumed the lease when he bought the land he has no right to run you out before the 1st. Some of the attornies I work for are land attornies and we do similar deals when they sell their land to these housing developments.They ran us out before deadline once and had to pay damages including the tax exemption and grazing rights.Also our attornies fees

 

[jw]

Bull Lady,

I'm not a lawyer, but if my understanding is correct, if the buyer did not agree to the lease arrangment, then as owner he is not obligated after the purchase to retain the provisions of the lease. If, however, the sale document included provisions for the lease to remain intact then he is oblgated until the end of the lease. You might check with the seller and he/she could probably tell you how they drew up the papers in that regard. It will be whatever is in the "4 Corners" of the sale agreement.

Good luck.

 

[backhoeboogie]

We've got a pasture lease on a 140 acre property that is up June 1. The property was sold in January with the lease in place, and with a written copy of the lease going to the buyer.

Now it's time to hay. Our cows are running on about 1/2 the place. The owner ("townie.. doesn't know the front end of a cow from the back") had someone out today to look at the pastures for baling. He told him the cows were ruining the hay meadow for cutting, so he closed them out of the pasture. He told my husband today he had someone coming to bale hay.

My husband offered to let him bale three of the four pastures, and we'd put the cows out on the one remaining pasture, if he'd renew the lease for an additional 30 days.... doesn't that sound like a fair deal? The owner said no, he was just going to go ahead and bale. My husband told him he could bale anything he wanted, after June 1st.

We've tried to deal with this guy since he bought the place.. he likes to drive his riding lawn mower all over the pastures.. we've never said a word, even though, according to the lease, he doesn't have the right to be anywhere in the pastures. We've quit using the barn, which is also something that we were to have in the lease. He shouldn't be this stupid.. he owns rental property in town.

He said he's going to call his attorney tonight.. I sure hope he tells him he doesn't have any rights until after the 1st!

Are we being unreasonable?

It is a good thing he is talking to his attorney; he certainly needs to be advised that he is totally off base.

Wouldn't you like to get this before a jury, here in Texas? Where is this guy from?

 

[EIEIO]

No expert here either but unless the new owner of the farm was notified of the contract/lease your beef may be with the previous owner of the place.

Regardless, I bet if it winds up in court your lawyer cost will be a whole heck of a lot a lot more than what you will be out if you got to move your cattle a month earlier than you had planned.

Hope you can get things worked out. Ya' may try calling the previous owner you had the contract with and have him give the real estate folks a call and see if they put the contract for grazing you have with the previous owner in writing in with the land sale. If they did you can get a copy and have the new owner show that to his lawyer or the guy may honor it without having to show it to his attorney.

J

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

BullLady, given your profession I imagine you know some good real estate attorneys and one of them could probably readily tell you where you stand legally. I assume that your lease was not recorded ( so it did not show up on a title search) and was silent as to being binding on assigns, etc. -- correct? I'm sure not a real estate attorney, but if those assumptions are correct I've got a bad feeling that even though the former owner apparently showed a copy of the lease to the purchaser your only recourse might be against the former owner. I hope I'm wrong on this. Good luck.

 

[FL Cowboy]

Bulllady do you know if he assumed the lease? And in your lease did anyone put a "incase it sold " clause in it. Because if he did not assume the lease in Florida he has to give you a written notice and 90 days to vacate.I dont know how it is over there.But a helpfull hint about leases is to have a clause in them about if the property is sold how many days you have to vacate,will the remander of your money be refunded ect.
best of luck

 

[Ryan]

BullLady said:

...sold in January with the lease in place, and with a written copy of the lease going to the buyer.

I would assume with the lease being in writing, and it seems as if he assumed the leased, that once the gentleman talks to his own attorney then everything should be cleared up. But I do not really know a lot about leases, just using some common sense (that could the problem here). Hope everything works out well for you.

Ryan

 

[Beefy]

ive come to find that a lot of people just suck.

 

[Ryan]

ive come to find that a lot of people just suck.

Sonny Burgess has a new song out that I am finding to be more true by the day. Title: "The more I'm around some people, The more I like my Dog"

 

[cul8r]

Lease or no lease. I'm sure that the lease states that the property owner can come onto the property and inspect it anytime that he wants to. If your lease is up June 1st, you said he had someone out yesterday, May 17th, your lease is up in a couple of weeks anyway, it will probably take the guy a couple of weeks to get there to bale anyway, move the cattle and move on. Maybe you should have bought the place, then you could do whatever you wanted with it.

There are always clauses in grazing-pasture leases that basically the owner of the property can do whatever, whenever they so choose. Most state that if the property is sold, then the lease is terminated. He may have just been being nice and letting you continue until June 1st.

When the land was sold, was a new lease drawn up with the new owner's name for the remaining time on the lease? if not, then you probably don't have a leg to stand on.

 

[Cabo]

BullLady, please let us know how this turns out. Just curious

 

[TheBullLady]

I guess I need to clear up a couple of things.

First of all, I represented the seller in the sale of the property, since I'm a Realtor. The new owner assumed the previous lease.. it was noted in the title policy. There has never been any question about if the lease is valid, I guess his only confusion is what he's entitled to as the owner, as opposed to the tenant.

We could have baled the hay ourselves before June 1.. but in all honestly, I felt bad about doing that, even though legally we have that right. And also, my cows are on that place, and would prefer not to worry about how he could get "even" if he felt the need. I guess I thought everyone would be FAIR, and part amicably.

Legally I know what our position is.. I'm just having a hard time understanding why he is apparently unhappy with it. Maybe it's because he's never had a farm / ranch before, but if he was unclear about the lease, HIS RE agent should have made sure he understood it, or he should have consulted with an attorney before he bought.

cul8r, we had the first option to buy the property, but we don't need another ranch! The property belongs to a friend of ours who's husband died unexpectedly last year. The first thing she did is call and have us take all her stock to the auction barn. She then asked if we would lease it for a year, giving her time to decide what she wanted to do, and leaving the responsibility of maintaining it to us. She ended up wanting to move to town last winter, so I sold the place in February. Again.. it's not an issue of the new owner not knowing about the lease.. it's recorded.. it's on the title policy, and he was in agreement with it.. at closing.