Farmland Owner Exemption

[Capbyrd]

Here is a question about the landowner exemption.   Current law exempts landowners and their children from having to buy a license.  

 

Quote

TCA 70-2-204. Hunting and fishing on farm land — Li- cense exemption to owner, tenants and their spouses and children. – (a) The owners and tenants of farmlands, and their spouse and children, have the right to engage in the sport of hunting and fishing, subject to all the provisions of all laws or regulations concerning wildlife, upon such lands and waters thereon of which they or their spouses or parents are the bona fide owners or tenants with the per- mission of the landowner, during the season when it is law- ful to do so, without procuring a hunting and sport fishing license. Tenants and their spouses and their dependent children must be bona fide residents of the state and must actually reside on the land. Owners and their spouses and children must be bona fide residents of the state. Land may qualify as farmland only if it is owned by no more than one (1) individual or a family; provided, that if land is owned jointly or in common by persons who are first cousins related by blood, then such cousins and their children may hunt small game and fish on such land under the provi- sions of this subsection. “Family” means any combination of kinship within the third degree including any spouse who has an interest in the property. “Tenant” means an individual who receives compensation such as free rent or money for acting either in the place of or at the direction of the landowner in tending to the requirements needed to care for the farmland. The primary purpose of the tenancy shall be agricultural in nature

 

The land that I hunt was my grandparents.   They have both passed away but when they did, we never went through probate to change the names on everything.   There was no will, so now the property belongs to the estate of my grandparents. My mom and her two brothers own the estate.  So would I be able to use the "and children" part of the landowner exemption to skip the license part?  


Let me also say that there is possibility that I will hunt other pieces of land than the ones that my family owns so I still buy a license, but this is just something that I am curious about.  

 

[DaveTN]

Sure, provided your mother owns the property and meets all the rigmarole about ownership/multiple owners\residency. 

[Capbyrd]

16 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

Sure, provided your mother owns the property and meets all the rigmarole about ownership/multiple owners\residency. 

Care to expand?  What rigamarole?  Residency is covered since we have never lived anywhere other than TN.  The multiple owner thing is her and her two brothers so I'm pretty sure that's within the third degree.   My question is whether TWRA considers her the owner since her name is explicitly on the deed.  It's the difference between me being a child or a grandchild and one is covered and one is not. 

[DaveTN]

3 minutes ago, Capbyrd said:

 My question is whether TWRA considers her the owner since her name is explicitly on the deed. 

Prezackly. TWRA doesn’t get to decide if she is the owner; she is or she isn’t. Legal rigmarole.

You said your Mom and her siblings own the estate. If the property is part of that estate; she is the owner and a Tennessee resident.

[eRay]

Lets throw another murky question out here. I live on a 2 acre place on the lake. I recently learned that my property is zoned A-2 agricultural.  My next door neighbor is zoned R-2 residential. Since my 2 acres are zoned agricultural and I grow a garden, would I qualify for the fishing exception?  Not that it matters as I have a lifetime license. Just wondering as there seems to be no minimum property size.

[peejman]

I believe its based on how the property is taxed, so if you're zoned agricultural and pay property taxes at the farm rate, then you have a farm as far as the .gov is concerned.