Fence: Landlord or lessee

[Horseless]

With private leases getting so high, what is the norm on most leases for the cost of fence repair and construction? I am sure the rancher usually always does the work. Most of these I feel the landlord should reimburse the rancher for labor and materials. Is this the norm?

 

[IL Rancher]

WE have always gone by a general rule here, if it increase the value of the investment it is the landlords responsibility.. If it is general repairs of existing things than it is rentors responsibility.. For example, when we had to rebuild facilities because they were completly shot we talked to the landlord and he is the one who offered up the money for replacing them because he wanted the area looking nice and clean and whatever.. Of course, the accountant for the bossman also basically told us if it isn't moveable the land lord will pay for it (Some tax reason that is beyong me knowledge, lol).

 

[Cowpuncher]

We have both a private lease and a State lease.

The state adjusts its rental comparisons so that the tenant must pay both for fences and water. Generally, in private leases, the landlord is expected to take care of this.

We have one private lease which covers 320 acres. The previous tenant had done nothing about either fences or water.

We ran one of our pipelines a hundred yards into the lease ground and put a tank in. The valve controlling this tank is on our property. We also fenced the property - three miles of new fence. A neighbor paid for half of the cost where it joined his property.

It cost us a couple of years rent to do this, but now our entire ranch has new or almost new fences - about 80 miles. Our guys probably don't spend more than a couple of days a year doing fence work.

We did the fencing without even asking the landlord. They are thrilled and I am sure we can keep the lease as long as we want it. Rent is $4.50 per acre.

In the last 2 or 3 years, the cost of fencing has almost doubled. And we are all done with it for a long time to come.

 

[Doug Thorson]

In this area most landlords are responsible for labor and materials. It saves time for the renting party but sometimes the fences are deemed good enough when they aren't very good.
I rent from a lady in her 70's and I provide labor and she provides materials. I got the first 5 year lease at a discount because the fences needed work. We will see what happens during the next negotiation what the price is with good fences.

 

[Denny]

We used to have leases where the fences were maintained by the land owner.I have one of those left a couple others the man of the household has passed away and I kept the lease but gained the fenceing responsibilities.Then there are the absentee owners one place we have leased for 5 years and I have never met the owner he lives in Colorado others live 100 or 200 miles away.All will pay for fenceing supplies for maintaining not for some cross fenceing idea I may have but me being me I don't get those ideas.We've had some trouble with a new pasture it had about 400 ft. of fence around a cabin a single hot wire cows kept getting out and headed out into a 8000 acre wildlife management area I got them found and trailed back last week then I rebuilt the fence into a 4 barb wire fence line cows are where they belong now "Damn Freegrazers" no wonder that pasture is holding up so good.Don't worry I put a gate in back there in case I need the pasture. :wink: