The principles of good estate management
11 May 2025if you search on-line for the meaning of the “principles of good estate mangement”, then chances are you’ll find some saying it’s been lost in the mists of time. At least I did – before I delved.
The origin of the phrase is, along with the principles of good husbandry, to be found in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908. It is a reminder of how the commercial property market came about. A consequence of landed estate owners (landlords) letting non-domestic buildings instead of selling them (which, unless for death duties, paying gambling debts, and stately home repair, was rare in any event).
The 1908 Act went into the Agriculture Act 1947 which says…
“For the purposes of this Act, an owner of agricultural land shall be deemed to fulfil his responsibilities to manage it in accordance with the rules of good estate management in so far as his management of the land and (so far as it affects the management of that land) of other land managed by him is such as to be reasonably adequate, having regard to the character and situation of the land and other relevant circumstances, to enable an occupier of the land reasonably skilled in husbandry to maintain efficient production as respects both the kind of produce and the quality and quantity thereof.
In determining whether the management of land is such as aforesaid, regard shall behad, but without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of the last foregoing subsection, to the extent to which the owner is providing, improving, maintaining and repairing fixed equipment on the land in so far as is necessary to enable an occupier of the land reasonably skilled in husbandry to maintain efficient production as aforesaid.
The responsibilities under the rules of good estate management of an owner of land in the occupation of another person shall not in relation to the maintenance and repair of fixed equipment include an obligation to do anything which that other person is under an obligation to do by virtue of any agreement”
…until consolidated in the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986.
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