Checklist · Agribusiness & Rural Law
Farm lease: instructions sheet, key terms and drafting checklist (with NSW Agricultural Tenancies Act terms)
An instructions sheet and drafting checklist for a lease of farming land: land and water, term and rent review, use restrictions, condition records, improvements, fixtures, entry, termination, and the NSW implied terms that cannot be excluded.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales, Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 4 authorities it cites, for New South Wales and Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when taking instructions for, drafting or reviewing a lease or licence of agricultural land. In NSW the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1990 applies to a tenancy of a farm of at least 1 hectare, so check the draft against its implied terms before it goes to the other side.
How AI may be used
AI may turn completed instructions into a first draft and check a draft against this list; the lawyer checks every term against the instructions, the searches and the Act before the lease is issued or signed.
AI may
- Populate the instructions sheet from emails, the term sheet and title searches
- Compare a draft or the other side's lease against each checklist item and list gaps
- Extract lot and DP numbers, areas, water licences and encumbrances from searches into the schedule
AI must not
- Must not fill missing commercial terms (rent, review method, term, restrictions) with assumed or typical figures
- Must not draft a term that excludes the tenant's compensation, fixtures or notice rights under the NSW Act
- Must not advise on stamp duty, land tax or primary production tax status
The lawyer checks
- Whether the Act applies (farm of at least 1 hectare used mostly for agricultural purposes) and whether the arrangement is a lease or a licence
- Termination and notice terms align with s 14, including year-to-year tenancies and the end of the annual cropping program
- Water entitlements, bores and infrastructure are expressly included or excluded, and any mortgagee consent is obtained
- Improvements, compensation and fixtures terms are fair and consistent with the Act
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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