High Country Accord chairman Ben Todhunter confirmed rumours that tenure-review negotiations were stalling because proposed higher rents were being used to calculate tenure-review outcomes, which affected proposed equalisation payments.
Last year, the Government announced it was changing the way rents for pastoral lessees were calculated to include a charge for amenity values, such as views and lake frontages.
This was despite advice from a Government-commissioned expert taskforce charged with looking at the rent-setting methodology which said rents were fair or, in some cases, excessive.
The new methodology is now the subject of a court case, to be heard in Dunedin in October.
Mr Todhunter said Crown negotiators were already factoring in the new rent methodology in tenure-review negotiations, and it was understood the difference in proposed equalisation payments by the Crown for lessees' interests and rights in pastoral leases were in some cases six figures.
"Clearly, we think it's wrong; clearly, we think it's the wrong method," he said.
The higher rent showed the Crown considered it had a higher stake in the interests of a pastoral lease than before, Mr Todhunter said.
He said that also made it cheaper for the Crown to buy out a lessee's interest and create the high-country park network which was the Government's goal.
Lessees were reluctant to conclude negotiations until the case was resolved, Mr Todhunter said.