Lease ? Problem?

Agreement was Rent entire property for livestock, furnish and apply fertilizers for pasture and hay fields, keep uneaten weeds at bay by random mowings presumably twice per season, and finally Fence, is theirs to keep stock in and once I had the fences up they would maintain them as need repairs, I would furnish materials.  Have a few Hundred T-post at the Barn, clips and tools handy, seven rolls of OK Brand Four Barb 12 1/2ga and numerous Spare or extra Wooden Post as for those that will eventually rot.  Renters Been on the place now almost five years.

So far as a fence gets bad enough for the stock to wander into neighbors pastures a string or two of Hotwire gets laid out and the Wire fence is left decayed, watched calfs jump their hotwire with dead battery or bad charger and push under the Barb Wire Fence.  Was explained by one of them that "MY" Corner Posts are rotting and leaning where "My" wire is now loose so they had no alternative but add the temporary hotwire, NOTHING mentioned as to their needing help or actually going to get the wire fence fixed or their needing materials just emphasis on those being "My" fences.  I do not really want to be insensitive but this is beginning to expand across the property where I expected them to keep those up and have that in writing.

I second Hubert's concern.

Always keep in mind that a lease is a contract, and contracts have two sides, each with obligations and responsibilities.  A failure of obligation or responsibility on EITHER side, is referred to as a 'breach'.

Contractual breaches occur often, and the first and foremost action, is that the breach needs to be brought to the attention of the contracted party.  It should ALWAYS be done with some form of traceable proof, but in polite ways, it is common for a first notice to be casual, and if no action is taken, a letter cc'd to law office, corporate partners, or even your insurance agent, of the circumstance which is also a reminder of the previous conversation, like this:

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On the other hand, as a landowner, the pasture cash rent rate here isn't near enough for me to risk the liability of someone nailing a renter's cow at 55 MPH because my renter wasn't keeping up their half of the bargain by maintaining the fence. Landowner responsible for materials is common here too but ultimately renters tend to not be that motivated as mentioned in my first paragraph. Sure, if someone hits the cow on a road you get to try to demonstrate that the renter wasn't holding up their end of the agreement, in court, and he tries to demonstrate that you weren't holding up yours... I probably have a different mindset on this than most folks, but I deal with liability issues on occasion at work and my pastures are by some very busy roads so it's an easy decision for me. Just the legal fees would counter years of rental income here.

A guy renting a pasture adjacent to one of my pastures always wants to rent mine... He doesn't keep up his half of the fence between us as it stands today. My half is not pretty but I make sure cattle don't get through. Why on earth would I ever rent to him?

Best thing to do is find a renter you can trust (difficult in my experience), or totally have your fences redone on your dime and maybe see if you can charge a premium for rent based on the fact that almost no maintenance should be required unless a tree or something falls on it. May be worth having a serious chat as the previous commenter mentioned... Walk the fences with them, get an agreement in writing as to what all needs to be done when, and if they don't hold up their end during the written and agreed time frame maybe start looking elsewhere.

Edit: I see Dave and Jay posted while I was typing and I am not alone in the liability mindset... Thanks guys.

I am going to work on fences again this summer, may need to rent a Post Driver and buy some steel pipe post for ends, corners, gates and braces as the available wooden crap is all junk.  I have always set four strand fence, was asked if could go five but not willing to go there if not needed.  Always been told if cow wants thru a four strand will also push a five.  Expenses are write offs, just need to spend my own time for their benefit is my complaint.  The one brother understands while they have been considering leaving this farm as not expandable since other brother took over the farm to the north.  Cost them pretty dearly as to numbers could run here.  I do not see any change in attitude by years end the lease will be pulled.

Already decided should I get all fence back up and shut off the lease will not lease it out further.  Can sell the hay off as shares to neighbor East of us off the Brome Field as will be his to mow, rake and bale for 1/3 the cost of purchased bales SHOULD he want the hay, and I will mow the rest as I feel like it.  Only earned $2400/year on the lease anyway.