What to do?

[furrowtickler]

We are suddenly in an awkward situation here in mid April. This whole circus started last Jan/04 when we dropped 800ac of average land (rented) that was about 7 miles from the home yard. We had an opertunity to rent 480ac right next door so we kind of did a switch. 3weeks after we signed the lease it goes up for sale, at a very high asking price without even being notified until we seen the Remax sign on the fence post.
After the last four years of drought and hail storms we were are not in any position to buy at the time. We have a three year lease and thought the land would be for sale for some time at the asking price.
Well... the s**t hit the fan today,an offer came through last friday and our landlord agreed to the offer. We have last right to match the offer, but the offer is way more than what is feasible to any farm business in our area. Part of the problem is we had to spray our frozen wheat last fall on this land if we were to have a crop at all this year(thistles). We know we financialy should not match this offer so we asked the land lord and this potential new buyer if we could recoup our expenses from last fall. Both paties told us "not a chance!"
We are left in an awkward position now becuase we did not want to keep him from selling his land, but his complete arrogance and rudeness today set us off. We executed a caviant today for our expences or the new owner must honour the exsisting lease.
This may cause the buyer to walk away but we did ask politely to recoup our cost and were rudely told to pi** off twice today. Did we do the right thing?
What other options do we have? We have also pre-bought fert,seed for all acres and have a contract for linola on some of this land.
Not something we expected/wanted to deal with in the tail-end of April.
P.S. - the buyer is from over 230 miles away and expects to move machinery here to farm 480ac!

[shamus]

Sounds like the owner is a miserable pr--k and the buyer is just plain STUPID. In my books you did the right thing. Stick it to him. This crap happens where I farm too as Caseman can attest. It sure pi**es me off!!!!

[bombay_43]

I agree! For too long now, farmers have been seen as a bunch of uneducated, poor sobs, who couldn't do anything else in life, so they went farming!

The face of farming has changed! Big business, big expenses, environmentally big responsibility! I think it is high time farmers get recognized for being the very competent business people they are.

Fighting back is the only way to get others to quit walking on us!

Good on you! Don't feel guilty for doing what is right!

[WoolyBear]

You go furrowtickler....... We've dealt with enough gentlemen landlords / old farts that own land, and haven't farmed it for years. It p**Sed us off too to have these characters insist on more rent, more improvements to be done all the while not being willing to admit that the costs to the tenants are going up every year.

How many of them complain about what we charge for custom services like combining or cultivating or spraying say "hell thats twice what you charge 10 years ago!" How many of them refuse to provide better grain storage or refuses to maintain the "old 1000 bushel red bin in the corner of the pasture" It was fine 10 years ago! Theres far too many rules being added to the rent costs because they know that WE WOULD BELIEVE that there was someone more willing (and MORE STUPID) to pay a higher price.

It think it was plain nasty for the for sale sign to go up AFTER you had a signed lease......... What more the idiot that is supposedly travelling 200 miles to farm it is likely the grunt, and not the brains behind a group of lawyers or doctors (or worse yet, chemical/fertilizer dealers). I'm sure that some of this is going on and thats where all the CAIS money is heading too.

The cash isn't out there ladies and gentleman....... The gravy train that these landlords had is skidding to a stop, and really, why should we be worried if it sits covered in weeds, or the crop lays out in the swath next winter...... we won't have to be the ones to have to pay and PRAY that the crop while or won't pay the bills. Many of us will be pulling in our belts and saying.........ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

[FarmRanger]

I am sorry to hear of your troubles furrowtickler. I rent half of my land and have caveats filed on most of it for the leases I hold. Unfortunately lawyers are the ones who make money out of that, but its the best way to protect yourself. When I rent new land, its just part of signing the lease to put the caveat on. Everyone knows up front what the deal is.
If the deal is going through anyway, remember to charge for ALL your expenses you have into that land. Have you made any improvements, that you were planning on recouping the costs of over the next few years. Also, your landlord should be responsible for any net profits you are foregoing in his breaking of the lease. I am not a lawyer, but that seems fair.

[les]

furrowtickler.....I believe anyone can put a caveat on any other persons property but if it isnt agreed on by both parties before hand then I dont think it will have any legal impact on your case.

[seedsman]

I've had a number of multi-year written farm land leases. Everyone has always told me that a written lease will stay in effect even if the land is sold. Had this happen a year ago. Landowner offered me the land at too high a price for us, sold the land the next morning. Neither the original owner or the new owner questioned the land lease arrangement. We just continued on with our farming and now write the cheque to a new owner. This type of situation happens all the time in the commercial real estate market. eg. you rent a space in a strip mall for 3 years, and the mall is sold, you get to continue your business.