Court-authorised assignment of a rural lease: must it take place immediately?

Article L. 411-35 of the French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code generally prohibits lease assignments, except to a spouse or civil partnership (PACS) partner participating in the holding, or to the tenant’s adult or emancipated descendants, with the landlord’s consent or, failing that, permission from the rural lease tribunal. Permission must be obtained beforehand. The court checks that the assignment does not harm the landlord’s legitimate interests, considering the tenant’s good faith and the assignee’s ability to farm personally.

In a published ruling of 3 December 2020, the Court of Cassation held that an assignee must, like any recovery beneficiary, immediately devote themselves to farming the property. That case concerned a tenant who had received an age-related notice to quit.

A tenant holding an eighteen-year lease entered into in 2007 obtained permission from the rural lease tribunal to assign it to his son. The judgment became final in January 2019 after the landlord withdrew her appeal. The assignment deed was signed only in March 2020 and notified to the landlord in April 2020. She sought termination on the ground that the son had not personally farmed the land as soon as the permission became final.

The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal. It approved the Court of Appeal’s finding that obtaining permission to assign the lease to the son did not require the tenant to do so immediately, since the lease had not expired.

The lower courts noted that the lease expired in 2025, that the assignment deed described the assignor as a farmer and that the landlord had not proved he had retired. Since the son devoted himself to farming from notification of the assignment, the takeover was lawful.

This ruling, not published in the Bulletin, should be read alongside that of 3 December 2020. Where the tenant has received an age-related notice, assignment must occur and the assignee must start without waiting. Outside that situation, and while the lease continues, the tenant can organise the assignment date freely, for example to finalise financing or an application for start-up assistance.

Two precautions nevertheless apply. The assignor must continue farming personally until the effective assignment: if they cease activity or retire while letting their son farm in practice, the landlord may invoke a prohibited assignment. A written assignment deed, notified to the landlord, also remains essential to establish the transfer date with certainty.