Lease fee for agricultural land

Speso one wonders how one comes to determine the rent of an agricultural fund. Today in light of ruling no. 318/2002 of the Constitutional Court, which declared the illegitimacy of Articles 9 and 62 of L 203/1982, it can be said, in keeping with the Court, that “the mechanism for determining the fair rent, based on the dominical incomes resulting from the cadastre of 1939, is now devoid of any rational justification, given that more recent and reliable cadastral data exist and that, in any case, that cadastre, more than sixty years after its implantation, has lost any suitability to represent the actual characteristics of the land, so that it cannot be used as the basis for a regulation of agrarian contracts that respects the constitutional guarantee of private land ownership and is such as to pursue the purpose of establishing equitable social relations“.

As a result of the Constitutional Court’s determination, a legislative vacuum was created, resulting in the impossibility of identifying the legal parameters for determining the agricultural fund rent. Add to this the failure of the Legislature to intervene on the point, and all that remains is to see how all these circumstances have led to a situation in which case law, including that of legitimacy, and operational practice have taken on the task of identifying and establishing possible application criteria.

In this regard, it seems appropriate to recall a very recent pronouncement in April 2011 in which the 6th Section of the Supreme Court declared that as a result of the declaration of unconstitutionality in Constitutional Court ruling no. 318/2002, both the tables for fair rent, governed by Art. 9 l. 203/1982, both the dominical incomes established, pursuant to Art. 62 of said Law 203, the rent due from the tenant party is only the rent freely established between the parties or the last one, judicially ascertained by a final judgment prior to Judgment No. 318/2002.

Within the framework of the principle thus established, it is therefore up to free bargaining to determine the fee, in each case, referred to and made congruous by referring to parameters such as:

– location of the land;

– productivity of the soil;

– Number of existing plants;

– Amount of product obtained per hectare;

– Irrigability of the soil;

– Ownership of the single corporate payment (securities).

In view of what has been briefly stated, all that remains is to follow and/or advise following the established practice that tends to the conclusion of the contract in accordance with and for the purposes of Article 45 of the aforementioned Law 203 / 1982 and therefore with the assistance of the professional organizations. And this, of course, also in order to make any subsequent disputes between the parties legally impractical.

Attorney Chiara Roncarolo

Attorney Maurizio Randazzo