Two neighbouring farmers put their plots at each other’s disposal. In 2011 each signs a “certificate of verbal lease” in which he calls himself the other’s landlord for nine years. Ten years later one of them ends the swap and orders the other to vacate his land within a fortnight. The other applies to the rural leases court (tribunal paritaire des baux ruraux): he has a farm lease (bail rural), renewed, and asks for the rent to be fixed. The Poitiers Court of Appeal agrees, the plots being of equal value. On 2 July 2026 the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil matters) quashed that ruling in a reported decision: the consideration required by the farm lease statute “cannot result from the reciprocal making available of plots by their owners”. No lease, no statute, no rent. For the valuation of the land, that is the whole difference between a vacant plot and a let plot.
The facts
Mr G. puts at Mr A.’s disposal plots he owns, and Mr A. puts his own at Mr G.’s disposal. On 12 May 2011 they sign two certificates of verbal lease, in which each, as landlord, certifies having let his land to the other for nine years. On 30 March 2021 Mr A. notifies Mr G. of his decision to end the swap of use and gives him notice to vacate his plots within fifteen days. On 15 April 2021 Mr G. applies to the rural leases court for recognition of a farm lease running from 12 May 2011, renewed for nine-year periods, and for the rent to be fixed.
The Poitiers Court of Appeal, on 8 April 2025, holds that Mr G. has a verbal farm lease over Mr A.’s plots: article L. 411-1 specifies neither the amount nor the nature of the consideration, and, since it is not claimed that the plots are of unequal value, the making available by each party is the consideration for the lease granted by the other.
The decision
The third civil chamber quashed the judgment (Cass. 3e civ., 2 July 2026, no. 25-15.803, reported), under article L. 411-1, paragraph 1, of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code: “any making available for consideration of agricultural property with a view to farming it” falls under the farm lease statute, a public-policy provision.
The rule is clear-cut: “The consideration required by this provision cannot result from the reciprocal making available of plots by their owners. Accordingly, where an owner grants the use of his farmland to another, who in return grants him the use of his own, they are not reciprocally landlord and tenant of one another.” Quashing, save on admissibility, and remittal to the Bordeaux Court of Appeal.
What this changes for valuation
Vacant or let, the plot is not worth the same. Land burdened with a farm lease sells at a discount, often in the region of 20 to 30 %, because the buyer takes on a sitting tenant, a regulated rent, a right to renewal and a right of pre-emption. Vacant land sells at the price of vacant land. The ruling says that a swap of use between neighbours does not create that burden: each remains the owner of a vacant plot, whose use he can take back by ending the swap, subject to reasonable notice. For a valuer assessing one of those plots, in a sale, an inheritance or a partition, the classification governs the discount, and the ruling avoids an unjustified one.
Why equal value is not enough. The Court of Appeal reasoned as an economist: two plots of equal value swapped is rent paid in kind on both sides. The Cour de cassation reasons as a lawyer: a lease requires a price, and reciprocal use is not a price. It thus protects swaps of convenience between farmers, which bring plots closer to each one’s farmstead without committing ownership. If the plots are of unequal value and a balancing payment is made, the question would arise differently; the valuation of both lots, per hectare and according to soil quality, is then the starting point.
Valuing the equivalence of a swap. When two owners want to formalise a swap, of use or of ownership, the valuer compares the plots: area, nature of the soil, drainage, access, shape, distance from the farmstead, attached payment entitlements. He concludes on equivalence or quantifies the balancing payment, and his report serves for the deed, or for the rural leases court if one of them later objects.
The end of the swap and improvements. The one who farmed the other’s plot for ten years may have improved it: drainage, liming, fences, plantings. Without the farm lease statute, he has no right to the outgoing tenant’s indemnity; he is left with unjust enrichment, to be proved and quantified by the added value brought to the land at the date of return. The valuer establishes that added value by comparing the value of the plot with and without the improvements.
The rent that does not exist. Mr G. asked for the rent to be fixed, that is a price within the minimum and maximum of the prefectoral order. Without a lease there is nothing to fix; on the other hand, if one of them occupies the other’s plot without title after the swap has ended, an occupation indemnity may be owed, computed on the rental value of the land, which brings us back to those same orders.
What the valuer takes from it
- A swap of use of plots between owners is not a farm lease: reciprocal making available is not consideration.
- Swapped plots remain vacant and are valued without the discount of let land.
- The equivalence of a swap is assessed by a comparative valuation of the plots, with a balancing payment where needed.
- Improvements made by the occupier are quantified by the added value brought to the land, as unjust enrichment.
- Without a lease there is no rent to fix; occupation without title is settled by an indemnity based on rental value.
Further reading
The Commercial rent and leases page describes the assignment, its timescale and its fee. The glossary entries valeur locative, décote pour occupation and indemnité d’occupation complement this article. On the same theme: Equestrian centre farm rent: the global clause is unlawful and Farm tenant pre-emption: an indivisible whole has one owner. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
Land swapped, lent or let without a written lease, and a value to establish?
I value the plots concerned, vacant or let, their reference rental value and the equivalence of a swap, for an agreement between neighbours, a partition or a dispute before the rural leases court.
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