The Scottish Government passed the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill on 2 July 2010. The Act deals with:-

• Re-organisation of The Crofters Commission

• Establishing a Crofting Register

• Duties of Crofters

Certain major changes came into force in July 2011 with further changes due in October 2011 and April 2012. This brings into force all provisions in the Act, with the exception of those relating to the new Crofting Register, which is being developed by the Registers of Scotland and Section 52 on consolidating crofting law.

1 July 2011 
Nominee Procedures

A crofter exercising his statutory right to acquire his croft will no longer be able to nominate an unrelated third party. He may only take title in his own name or nominate a member of his family.

Landlord’s Clawback

A landlord selling land to a crofter may share in any increase in value for a period of 10 years, increased from 5 years.

1 October 2011
Crofters’ Duties

Duties will be placed on tenants and owner occupier crofters in relation to their crofts. Crofters must not misuse or neglect crofts. Misuse will occur if the croft is not cultivated and neglect if not managed in accordance with the Cross Compliance Regulations. Planned conservation activities will not be treated as misuse or neglect.

Owner occupiers will cease to be landlords of vacant crofts and have their own status as occupiers and subject to the same duties as tenants.

Residency

Crofters and owner occupiers must reside within 32 kilometres of their crofts unless the Commission consents to their absence if there is good reason for this.

Succession

A croft may be bequeathed to two or more people.

Resumption and De-crofting

The Land Court and the Commission will take into account a wider range of factors when deciding on resumption and de-crofting applications.

1 April 2012

The Crofters Commission will be renamed the Crofting Commission. The Commission will have a new constitution and powers with responsibility for promotion and regulation of crofting including reporting annually to Scottish Ministers on its activities and the current state of crofting.

The Crofting Register

The Scottish Government and Registers of Scotland will be implementing the Crofting Register project as part of the Scottish Government’s overall programme of implementing crofting reform. Ancillary to this the Scottish Crofting Federation is encouraging crofters to map their crofts and is setting up a Crofting Community Mapping Programme to be available to all crofting communities. The Scottish Government allocated funds to assist the crofting communities in this process.

Further Information

For further information on this and any crofting issue please contact Adèle Nicol on your usual contact within Land Resources Department. 

This bulletin is for general information only and does not constitute legal, investment or other professional advice. Please contact us should you require advice on any particular legal issue. Anderson Strathern LLP accepts no responsibility for any loss that may arise if reliance is placed on any information or opinions expressed in this bulletin.