The law on emergency measures to regulate access to agricultural land through company structures, also known as the Sempastous law, introduced a mechanism for suspending the examination of an application for authorisation to farm for operations leading to excessive enlargement or concentration.
The suspension is decided by the Prefect, after consulting the Departmental Commission. It lasts for 8 months! This is in addition to the usual period of 4 months. The total period for the cases concerned is therefore close to 12 months!
The aim is to give potential buyers more time to come forward.
At the end of this additional period, there are 2 possibilities:
– no competing candidate has come forward: authorisation is granted to the person who submitted the initial application
– another applicant has come forward: authorisation may be refused and granted to the other applicant.
The thresholds for triggering this regulation are defined in the SDREA for each region and are different from the thresholds for controlling corporate operations.
For western France:
– 100ha per AWU (including employees) in Brittany
– 175ha per AWU without employees in Pays de Loire
– 210ha + 70ha per full-time AE above the first, capped at 360ha in Normandy
– 140ha per farm manager in New Aquitaine except for zone 3 (Basque Country + mountains) 90ha
– 230ha/UWA in the Centre Val De Loire region
Don’t hesitate to contact your negotiator to find out more!
Pour aller plus loin
Transferring ownership through a specialist firm: a successful operation at the Mottay farm
