Overview and Register
Farmers and landowners—and the land—benefit from good farm leases. A sound, well-written farm lease doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should reflect the interests and goals of both parties. Build-A-Lease will help you develop or improve your farm lease. It includes definitions, helpful FAQs, sample language, and fill-in space for the most common sections of a farm lease.
- Learn about farm leases
- Build a working version of a lease agreement that fits your situation or intent
- Share, review and edit the your lease document with your attorney and the other party
You can generate lease language to download (PDF), email, save and revise. Use this working document in discussions with landowners, farming tenants, and advisors. Be sure to share it with an attorney for review, refinements, and approval. This is an educational tool and outputs are not a legal document nor should they replace legal advice from an attorney.
Build-A-Lease is based on our work with farmers, landowners, and other service providers. It is designed for New England farmers and landowners. While it may be useful elsewhere, some language and clauses might be different in other regions.
Read the instructions carefully and note the tool’s limitations to make the best and most efficient use of it.
If you need individualized help with a farm lease or other farmland access, tenure or transfer situation in New England, please contact us.
Get started
Build-A-Lease is free and available to anyone.
Acknowledgements
The development of this tool has been supported by grants from The Cedar Tree Foundation, The John Merck Fund, the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (NIFA #2015-04544), and individual donors. We want to thank the following people who helped with tool content and testing: Attorneys Annette Higby, and Richard Cavanaugh, as well as farmers or landowners Ben Waterman, Mary Beth Poli, Jada Haas, Courtney Oman, Theresa Nolon, and Holly Menguc,
