Deadline: Oral Agricultural Lease Renewal

Though the weather might not be indicative of it, Fall is right around the corner and its arrival brings football Sundays, corn mazes, and, for farm tenants and landlords, a very important date in September. Under South Dakota law an oral lease for farmland of forty acres or more will automatically renew for the next year with the same terms and conditions applied unless written notice of termination is given by either the tenant or landlord by September 1st. If the written notice is given, then the lease will end the following March 1st. You may recall the deadline used to be November 1st, but that was amended by the state legislature in 1994.

A landlord can still give written notice after the September 1st deadline if the tenant defaults on performance required by the existing lease. Specific defaults will vary depending on the exact terms of a lease, but a tenant failing to pay property taxes as required by the agreement would be one example. It is important to note that leasing farmland for a period longer than one year cannot be completed under an oral lease. If parties would like to extend their rental agreement longer than one year, they would need to put the lease in writing to comply with South Dakota law.

If you wish to end your oral agricultural lease, or make modifications to it, be sure to provide written notice to your landlord or tenant before September 1st. Should you have questions regarding your oral lease or would like to switch to a longer-term written lease, Woods Fuller’s Real Estate attorneys are eager to assist.