Grazing leases, fencelines and handshakes. What do these three things have in common? Most farmers and ranchers would tell you that they miss the “good old days.” You know, the days when a man’s word was much more trustworthy than any piece of paper. As a lawyer whose paycheck mostly comes from those pesky pieces of paper, I can tell you that even I find myself longing for those good old days too.
Most of my clients are just like you – rural, salt-of-the-earth people who have made their living and built their legacies on handshake agreements. Most of them just roll their eyes and chuckle at me when I ask them their favorite question: “Did you get that in writing?” But even my most stubborn clients have found value in written contracts for certain circumstances, and thankfully not all of them have had to learn their lesson the hard way.
Picture this: You have leased the neighbor’s pasture to graze 200 head of cattle for the past 10 years. Your parents leased it from their parents before you. Then, all of a sudden, you get a phone call from the neighbor’s daughter letting you know that her father has died, and this precious pastureland will be sold to someone else – and the closing is next Friday. Now, not only do you have to get your cattle off of this property in a hurry, but you also have to find somewhere else to put all of them because heaven knows you would not have leased the pasture in the first place if you had enough land of your own.
There are two ways this scenario can play out. First, with a handshake agreement between yourself and your neighbor (who clearly did not explain the value of a handshake to his city-slicker daughter), you are left scrambling your way out of a no-win situation. There is also the likelihood that you have working pens, catch pens, headgates, feed troughs and all other sorts of equipment scattered across the property that you will need to remove. On the other hand, if you have a written grazing lease that meets the notice requirements of the laws for your jurisdiction, this new property owner will take title to the land subject to your rights to continue leasing the pasture until the lease term is over.
Now also imagine that about a year ago, you were not able to pay all of your rent for that grazing lease, so you offered to rebuild the fenceline between your property and your neighbor’s. The two of you walked the existing fenceline together, figured out which trees or shrubs would make good shade and which ones needed to go, and even agreed upon the color of the fence posts. You cleaned the old fencerow, buried all of the old materials on your side of the fence, purchased all of the new materials and constructed the new fence yourself in the exact same spot as the old one. Your neighbor admired your work and shook your hand with satisfaction and approval.
A month after you sold half of your cattle and found a new pasture for the rest of them, your new neighbor calls to inform you that the survey they received through closing reveals that the fence you built is 3 feet over the property boundary line, and they have an attorney who will be in contact if you do not move the fence within 30 days. Yikes.
This problem also could have been avoided if you and your neighbor had even a simple one-page written contract about the new fence. With your old neighbor dead and gone, it is now your word against the new owner’s about the arrangement you made and the location of the new fence.
Long before my parents sent me off to law school, they taught me that a man (or lady) is only as good as his word. And while I still hold fast to that belief, there are many people among us today who do not. As you can imagine – and as some of my clients can confirm – I did not make up the scenarios I shared with you in this article. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you will be thankful to have that handshake backed up with a pesky piece of paper.
