DetectingWales.com

Went out with a mate of mine today to see a farmer resulting in another 2000 acres of new land to detect, we gave a few fields a quick go,and my mate was lucky enough to find an Elizabeth 1 penny

We then went to see a very awkward farmer who has some fields we are desperate to get on,again he messed us around with no firm answer,he basically would not sign a 50/50 search agreement, because he felt it waved his rights if we were to find a hoard,in other words he expected the whole reward.  ???

It at least gave us a chance to visit one of are best fields that is in rape  stubble,we were only in there for 15 minutes and out popped a nice hammered penny of Edward 1  ;D

lovely hammered welldone fella great stuff.
ray.

A good days searching both for land and finds.
Just a bit of information for you, if your awkward farmer won't sign an agreement then he will only get 50%. Not sure why you want him to sign it, as a president has been laid down in law that as long as the finder has searched with the landowners permission then the find will be shared 50-50.

The farmer was insisting on a written contract.

then he refused to sign it

He did not want to agree to any percentage to finder and owner

because he felt it waved his right to claim the full reward of any treasure found on his land.

In other words he wanted it all.

We should have given him a rude reply, but we will try again another day

I would get him to sign a contract that doesn't state how much each party would get. Then if you do find anything valuable the law will take over. You would both get 50/50 by law.

If you can get him to sign an agreement which gives you access to his land for the purpose of metal detecting, then that is all you need if you find anything that could be considered treasure.

If you find anything on land you have specific permission to be on, then the rest is for a coroner to sort out. Individual items like a single coin are considered artifacts until you find the rest of the hoard anyway.

Eric

I agree with the reply posts.

Most of use around here have never done a written agreement. It's a gentlemans agreement. As long as
it's established you have consent to search then, as said, the law takes over.

If no written agreement the farmer could only argue that you had consented that he had the whole or a
certain percentage of any find or hoard.

As Geoff said, it's doubtful a court would believe this as the norm is 50/50.

If the percentage was to be any different then, yes, a written agreement would be needed.  It depends
how desperate you are to detect the fields and how you feel about it. Maybe go back and offer him
60% with a proviso that you can keep single finds under a certain value? You can always negotiate!

Ask him what he wants and state that it wouldn't be fair to keep the whole value as other land owners
were usually happy with 50%!!

Keep us posted on your greedy farmer!!!!!!!  :o

Bob the problem is the farmer is no gentleman,most of the village including all other farmers do not like him.

If it was down to me i would tell him exactly what he could do with his land

Just getting permission to detect the land would be a start,this wuold give both parties chance to get to know each other. I know it's nice to find something of value but how often does that happen - personally I would enjoy the detecting, show the farmer the everyday finds and go from there, you've nothing to lose, good luck

I would just put it down to bad luck, and look for somewhere else to search.  you quite often come across greedy types like this, even though he doesnt seem to realise that without your machine, nothing would ever come to light anyway. 
I have a next door neighbour (farmer) that wouldnt give you the drippings off his nose, so I would'nt even contemplate asking him in the first place. ::)

with 2000 acres in the bag as you say aready..i wouldnt bother ..the.farmer....sounds a nightmare to me...ive never had to do a wriitten contract..

Me and my two mates have over 6000 acres between us anyway.

The fields we are after are bang right in the middle of are best land, around 100 acres

If we can not get on them its no skin of my nose,but my mates are keen to get on them.

I know what i would like to tell the farmer  ;D

Well if you have 6000 acres then I'm afraid you'll be dead before you've searched it all anyway. It's so easy to get caught in the land collecting addiction.

I have around 3000 spread across 5 farms, and my two mates have 3000 we land share between us.

Good for you - should keep you two busy  ;)

M8 i would tread carefully (forgive the pun) make absolutely certain you have his permission to detect on his land. The problem might come if you happen to find somthing of value. If he wants a contract but then refuses to sign one, that just might indicate problems further down the line.

If treasure trove was found, he could insist that you were trespassing.

We all as said in most cases have a gentlemans agreement, the shxt nearly always hits the fan when greed and money is at stake. The bottom line with any farmland, whatever is found it really belongs to the owner.

I am lucky in that i have probably more farms than anyone on here, and even when i come across awkward land owners, i just steer clear, it just isnt worth the hassel.  ;)

As Chef says with that amount of land, to detect this properly you will be dead long before you would need to move on. Get yourself a GPS tracker and use it while detecting and that field you thought was done will have huge areas that you
have missed unless you methodically Grid the whole field. Anyway any permission I have is for detecting permission as has been previously stated the law states the value is 50/ 50 landowner and yourself for any finds of value. Good hunting anyway.