Commentary on Sections Part 10 – Agricultural Holdings Agreements made during amnesty period Section 118 – Arbitration and other dispute resolution
724.Section 118 provides that amnesty disputes can be settled by arbitration, and removes two items from the list of matters currently excluded from arbitration.
725.Subsection (1)(a)(i) provides for arbitration under section 116 for 1991 Act leases, and subsection (3)(a)(i) provides for the same in relation to 2003 Act leases, as an alternative to referring an amnesty dispute to the Land Court. Subsections (1)(c) and (3)(c) make it clear that any term of a lease which prevents parties from going to the Land Court on the amnesty is null and void.
726.The effect of subsections (1)(a)(ii) and (3)(a)(ii) is that certain issues currently ineligible to be dealt with by binding arbitration can now be brought to arbitration instead of to the Land Court, if the parties so agree. These are cases where (a) any question of difference between the landlord and tenant arises out of the making of a record of condition, (b) the landlord has objected to an improvement and the tenant has appealed to the Land Court for approval and (c) cases where the Land Court has granted approval and the landlord has said they will carry out the improvement themselves, but failed to do so in a reasonable time, and the tenant has applied to the Land Court to be able to carry the improvement out themselves.