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Rent Contract?

SWBUCKHNTR

Member
I'm not trying to take any work away from any lawyers here, but I was wondering if any of you guys have renter contracts that you have your renting farmer sign that lets you keep hunting rights on the farm? I have a farm that a guy is renting about 30 acres on. I dont know him from adam and I just want to make sure that he and I both understand the contract reads that I maintain the hunting rights on the farm. I was just wondering if you guys get one off the internet or do you have a local attorney write one up? Thanks
 
With the farmer that rents my tillable, I just have a verbal agreement, no contract. I just told them in the beginning, no hunting and no cattle on the cornstalks.
 
correct me if I'm wrong here, but when a farmer rents the ground he rents the "crop" ground correct? I ran into an issue last fall with a guy that chewed my ass about being on some land, in the woods that I had permission to hunt from the actual landowner. This guy had permission to hunt "all" of the farmers land and said the farmer told him he could hunt there because he leased it. I didn't make a big deal out of it and let him have it, but I did talk to the landowner and he said that the farmer only rents the tillable. So am I in the right or wrong here? I hear about this all the time in Iowa and I think it is a common misconception among hunters. I usually take the safe approach and get permission from both the landowner and renter. Can someone clear this up? Not trying to hijack the thread, just curious :way:
 
Ok, I just read the form and I see that it says you can check hunting rights for owner or renter, BUT it doesn't say anything on there about renting "timber" or wooded areas. Pretty hard to hang a treestand in a corn or bean field. I am coming to the conclusion that it is better to obtain permission from both people :confused:
 
correct me if I'm wrong here, but when a farmer rents the ground he rents the "crop" ground correct? I ran into an issue last fall with a guy that chewed my ass about being on some land, in the woods that I had permission to hunt from the actual landowner. This guy had permission to hunt "all" of the farmers land and said the farmer told him he could hunt there because he leased it. I didn't make a big deal out of it and let him have it, but I did talk to the landowner and he said that the farmer only rents the tillable. So am I in the right or wrong here? I hear about this all the time in Iowa and I think it is a common misconception among hunters. I usually take the safe approach and get permission from both the landowner and renter. Can someone clear this up? Not trying to hijack the thread, just curious :way:

That's a good question...as any of the land rental contracts that I have seen are based on the number of tillable acres on a given tract, yet the landowner almost always owns more land than just what is tillable. I can see both sides on that one and I am not sure how that would go.

At a minimum, it suggests that it would be wise to make sure that a rental contract specifically identifies what land can be hunted, tillable v. non.
 
Most of the rental contracts I deal with now clearly state who has the hunting privelages. It works out best for both parties to have it spelled out. Some of my landlords are now writing in that I control the hunting but I can't sub lease or outfit on it which is fine since I only hunt it myself.

Some states would say the renter and others would say the owner has the final say unless written in the rental contract. On any private land I ask permission from both the renter and the landlord. It is pretty cheap to have an attorney draft a lease for you and you can actually just update it yourself in the future. Better safe than sorry.
 
That's a good question...as any of the land rental contracts that I have seen are based on the number of tillable acres on a given tract, yet the landowner almost always owns more land than just what is tillable. I can see both sides on that one and I am not sure how that would go.

At a minimum, it suggests that it would be wise to make sure that a rental contract specifically identifies what land can be hunted, tillable v. non.

I am no expert by any means, but the way I have always understood is that if a renter pays to farm the ground then he is the controlling operator of the ground. Which I think means he has the farming rights, hunting rights, and say who hunts it. I think that is what is commom in an ordinary good ol' days contract. Now adays people buy land to hunt and hunt only even though it may have tillable on it. That is why you have to state in the contract that the owner maintains hunting rights to the farm. Either way I think every contract should have it stated somewhere in it. The reasoning for that is you get the good ol' boys like my uncle that care less about deer and who kills them or who hunts what. He owns a lot of ground but also rents quite a bit and he wants deer killed on any piece he has. It took me about 3 years of getting yelled at or people asking who I am and why I am hunting there before I finally got a plat book and figured out what he owned and what he rented. What happend is he is the "big" farmer in the area and any out of stater or out of town guy that bought ground had him farm it. Him being the old school type just figured that meant he had the hunting rights to it so he told me I could hunt it. These guys would drive a long ways to hunt only to find deerstands or someone else hunting. Finally I got my uncle convinced that he had to start putting a part for hunting rights in his contracts. Now it is cut and dry on what I can and can't hunt. It just makes things easier and leaves less suprises for the owner and the hunter.
 
rent contracts

SwBuckhunter: I have one that I created on my computer and I checked with an attorney years ago, and it is 100% legal.

The contract stresses the dates you expect payment, and the payment amount based on acres or on an overall $$ amount.

I always put the following in the contract:

-Owner maintains full hunting and recreational use rights on the farm then put the legal description.

-All farm payments go to the tenant (renter). If that is what you choose to do. In most cases the FSA farm payments go to the renter.

Also, a beginning and end date on the contract.

If you need a sample copy, I can e-mail you one.
 
This kind of brings up an interesting scenario.

Say a tenant farmer rents 80 acres of farm ground from a land owner. The land owner hunts this land so in his lease agreement he does not grant hunting rights to the tenant farmer, yet the tenant farmer stills qualifies for a landowner/tenant licence for farming that land.

(Granted, if he doesn't have permission he still can't hunt it.)

Just a thought.
 
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