Terminating a Verbal Farmland Lease

By Jessica Groskopf, PHREC Extension Educator, Agricultural Economist; Dave Aiken, Professor and Agricultural Water Law Specialist ; Allan Vyhnalek, Extension Educator, Farm & Ranch Transition and Succession

Some farm leases are not written but are verbal — or "handshake" — agreements. Because nothing is in writing, the parties may have different recollections of their agreement, making lease disputes more difficult to resolve. The most common legal issue associated with verbal farm leases is how a lease may legally be terminated. For both year-to-year leases and holdover leases, six m...