Challenging a notice to recover farmland: must the intended beneficiary be joined?

The landlord may refuse renewal of the lease to recover the rented property, provided that the intended beneficiary meets the conditions in Articles L. 411-58 and L. 411-59 of the French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code: personally farming for at least nine years, complying with farm structure controls, possessing the necessary livestock and equipment or the means to acquire them, and living on or near the property.

The notice must be served by a formal extrajudicial instrument at least eighteen months before the lease expires. On pain of nullity, it must state the grounds for recovery, the full identity of the beneficiary or beneficiaries and the dwelling they will occupy. A court hearing a challenge checks both the notice’s formal validity and the beneficiary’s compliance with the substantive conditions.

Article 14 of the French Code of Civil Procedure also establishes that no party may be judged without having been heard or summoned.

A rural lease covering slightly more than six hectares had been renewed for successive nine-year periods. The landlord served notice to recover the land for himself and, alternatively, notably upon his retirement, for his son. The tenant challenged the notice by bringing proceedings against the landlord alone. The Court of Appeal annulled the notice. Before the Court of Cassation, it was argued that the claim was inadmissible because the son, the alternative beneficiary, had not been joined.

The Court of Cassation rejected that argument. It held that a tenant challenging a notice to recover land for farming need only join the landlord, who alone expressed, through that notice, the intention to end the lease.

The intended beneficiary is not a party to the lease, and the notice is a unilateral act of the landlord alone. The adversarial principle therefore does not require the beneficiary to be brought into the proceedings.

The ruling provides procedural certainty for the tenant. They can focus on bringing the claim before the rural lease tribunal within four months of receiving the notice, setting out their grounds for challenging its formal and substantive validity. They need not fear inadmissibility for failing to sue the son, spouse or partner named as the future farmer.

The intended beneficiary can nevertheless intervene voluntarily if they have an interest, for example to provide direct evidence of professional qualifications or farming resources. The landlord should gather all the necessary supporting documents with the beneficiary as soon as the notice is served.