Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976

A crofter may, failing agreement with the landlord as to the acquisition by the crofter of croft land tenanted by him, apply to the Land Court for an order authorising him to make such acquisition.

A crofter shall be entitled to a conveyance of the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to the croft tenanted by him, and a cottar shall be entitled to a conveyance of the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to his subject, and the crofter or cottar may, failing agreement with the landlord, apply to the Land Court for an order requiring the landlord to grant such a conveyance.

In this Act " croft land " includes any land being part of a croft, other than—

In this Act, "the site of the dwelling-house " includes any building thereon and such extent of garden ground as, failing agreement with the landlord, may be determined by the Land Court by order under section 4(1) of this Act to be appropriate for the reasonable enjoyment of the dwelling-house as a residence but does not include—

The Land Court, on an application made to them under section 1(1) of this Act, may make an order—

The Land Court shall not make an order in accordance with subsection (1)(a) above where they are satisfied by the landlord as to either or both of the following matters—

The Land Court, in making an order in accordance with subsection (1)(a) above, may provide that the authorisation to acquire is conditional on the crofter granting a lease to the landlord of the shooting rights over or the fishing rights pertaining to the croft land and shall so provide where they are satisfied that if such a lease were not granted the interests of the landlord in the shooting or fishing rights of which the rights being acquired by the crofter form part would be materially affected ; and any such lease shall be at such nominal annual rent, for such period of not less than 20 years and subject to such other terms and conditions as the Land Court may specify.

The Land Court, in making an order in accordance with subsection (1)(a) above, may include the condition that the crofter shall grant a standard security in favour of the landlord to secure any sum which may become payable to him or his personal representative under section 3(3) of this Act in the event of disposal of the croft land or any part thereof.

Where the Land Court propose to make an order authorising the crofter to acquire— and they are satisfied that the apportionment has been made subject to conditions imposed by the Commission under section 15(5) of the Act of 1961, or, as the case may be, the said section 27(7), they shall have regard to the conditions so imposed.

Where the Land Court make an order in accordance with section 2(1)(a) of this Act and the crofter and the landlord have failed to reach agreement about the consideration payable in respect of the acquisition, the consideration shall, subject to subsection (3) below, be the crofting value of the croft land specified in the order as determined by the Land Court under subsection (2) below.

The crofting value of the croft land, as determined by the Land Court for the purposes of subsection (1) above, shall be 15 years' purchase of such amount as the Land Court may determine to be the proportion attributable to the croft land of the current rent payable for the croft of which the croft land forms part: Provided that the Land Court, on an application made to them by the landlord at any time before they make a final order under section 2(1) of this Act, may determine a fair rent for the croft which shall be deemed to be the current rent for the purposes of this subsection; and section 5(4) of the Act of 1955 shall apply for the purposes of this proviso as if for the word " parties " there were substituted the words " landlord and the crofter ".

The market value of the relevant land as determined by the Land Court shall be the amount which the land, if sold in the open market by a willing seller (not being an authority as defined in section 1(1)(b) of the Community Land Act 1975), might be expected to realise assuming that on the date of the disposal—

If the relevant land comprises only part of the land which was acquired under section 2(1) of this Act, the Land Court may, failing agreement between the parties concerned, on an application made to them by the person disposing of the relevant land or the landlord referred to in the said section 2(1) or his personal representative, determine for the purposes of subsection (3)(b) above the proportion of the amount of the consideration which was paid under subsection (1) above in respect of the relevant land.

No payment shall be made under subsection (3) above in respect of the disposal of the relevant land in a case where payment is made in respect of such disposal in accordance with an agreement entered into between the landlord and the person disposing of that land.

The Land Court, on an application made to them under section 1(2) of this Act, may make an order requiring the landlord to convey the site of the dwelling-house to the crofter or cottar or his nominee with such boundaries and subject to such terms and conditions as, failing agreement, may be specified in the order.

Where the parties have failed to reach agreement about the consideration payable in respect of the conveyance the consideration shall be—

The Land Court in making an order under subsection (1) above may determine that any of the expenses of the conveyance of the site and other expenses necessarily incurred by the landlord in relation thereto shall be borne by the crofter or cottar : Provided that where the order relates to the conveyance of the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to a croft, any such determination shall be subject to the condition that the conveyance is not included in a deed which also provides for the conveyance of croft land.

Failing agreement between the parties as to the amount of such expenses, the auditor of the Land Court may, on the application of either party, determine such amount; and may determine that the expenses of taxing such expenses shall be borne by the parties in such proportion as he thinks fit.

A landlord shall have power to execute a valid conveyance in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this Act, notwithstanding that he may be under any such disability as is mentioned in section 7 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1845.

Where the Land Court are satisfied, on the application of the crofter or cottar or his nominee that the landlord has failed to execute a conveyance of land in favour of such person in compliance with an order under section 2(1) or 4(1) of this Act within such time as the Land Court consider reasonable, they shall make an order authorising their principal clerk to execute the conveyance and such other deeds as adjusted at his sight as may be necessary to give effect to the order; and a conveyance executed by the principal clerk under this subsection shall have the like force and effect in all respects as if it had been executed by the landlord.

Where the principal clerk of the Land Court has executed a conveyance in pursuance of subsection (2) above, the Land Court may make such order as they think fit with regard to the payment of the consideration in respect of the conveyance and in particular providing for the distribution of the sum comprised in the consideration according to the respective estates or interests of persons making claim to such sum.

Notwithstanding that the Land Court have made an order under section 2(1) or 4(1) of this Act determining the terms and conditions on which land is to be conveyed, the crofter or, as the case may be, the cottar and the landlord may arrange for the conveyance of the land on any other terms and conditions that they may agree.

Where a person other than the landlord is infeft in the subjects to be conveyed, the second references in sections 1(2) and 2(1) of this Act and the reference in the said section 4(1) and in the foregoing provisions of this section to the landlord shall be construed as references to the landlord and such other person for their respective rights.

The Land Court in specifying in an order under the said section 2(1) or 4(1) the terms and conditions on which land is to be conveyed shall have regard to any existing land obligations as defined in section 1(2) of the Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970 relating to such land.

Where the landlords are the National Trust for Scotland, they shall not be required to convey land by an order of the Land Court under the said section 2(1) or 4(1) otherwise than by a grant in feu; but section 4(2) of the Order confirmed by the National Trust for Scotland Order Confirmation Act 1947 (which requires the consent of the Lord Advocate to grants in feu by the Trust exceeding 20 acres) shall not apply to such a grant.

Where the Land Court are satisfied, on the application of the landlord, that the crofter or his nominee has failed to execute a standard security in favour of the landlord in compliance with a condition imposed by the Land Court under section 2(4) of this Act within such time as the Land Court consider reasonable, they shall make an order authorising their principal clerk to execute the standard security; and a standard security executed by the principal clerk under this subsection shall have the like force and effect in all respects as if it had been executed by the crofter or his nominee.

An order of the Land Court under section 2(1)(a) or 4(1) of this Act shall have effect for a period of two years from the date of intimation of the order or for such other period as may at any time be agreed to in writing by the crofter or, as the case may be, the cottar and the landlord or as may be determined by the Land Court on the application of either party.

Where an order has been made by the Land Court under the said section 2(1)(a) or 4(1) in relation to croft land or the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to a croft or under the said section 4(1) in relation to the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to the subject of a cottar, then, so long as the order has effect— being compensation to which the crofter and the landlord or, as the case may be, the cottar would be entitled but for this subsection.

Any condition or provision to the effect that— shall not be capable of being enforced where the sale is by a landlord to a crofter or his nominee of croft land or to a crofter or a cottar or his nominee of the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to the croft or the subject of the cottar in pursuance of an order under the said section 2(1) or, as the case may be, 4(1).

Where the landlords are the National Trust for Scotland, the Land Court, in making an order under the said section 2(1) or 4(1), shall have regard to the purposes of the Trust.

A compulsory purchase order which authorises the compulsory purchase of land, being land which was held inalienably by the National Trust for Scotland on the date of the passing of this Act and was acquired from the Trust by a crofter in pursuance of an order under section 2(1) or 4(1) of this Act, shall in so far as it so authorises be subject to special parliamentary procedure in any case where an objection has been duly made by the Trust under the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) (Scotland) Act 1947 and has not been withdrawn; and in this subsection " held inalienably " has the same meaning as in section 7(1) of the said Act of 1947.

Where the site of the dwelling-house on or pertaining to a croft has been acquired after the passing of this Act by a person, who immediately before the acquisition was the tenant of the croft, that person and the wife or husband of that person may, so long as either of them continues to occupy the subjects conveyed, enjoy any right to cut and take peats for the use of those subjects which that person enjoyed immediately before the acquisition.

Any person acquiring croft land shall, unless and until the land ceases to be a croft by a direction of the Commission under section 16(9) of the Act of 1955, be required to give notice to the Commission of the change of ownership of the land.

Where— in respect of any loan, the amount outstanding in respect of such liability shall be deemed, as from the last day on which the crofter or cottar was liable to pay rent in respect of that site or on which the cottar was entitled to occupy the site as a cottar, to be a loan by the Secretary of State to the crofter or cottar or, as the case may be, by the Board to the crofter, and the provisions of Schedule 3 to the Act of 1955 (provisions as to security, etc., of loans) shall apply in relation to any such loan by the Secretary of State and, subject to any necessary modifications, to any such loan by the Board.

Any question arising under subsection (1) above as to the day from which the outstanding amount is deemed to be a loan shall be determined by the Land Court.

Any rights of the Board created under subsection (1) above shall be postponed to any rights, whensoever constituted, of the Secretary of State under that subsection; and such rights of the Secretary of State and the Board shall have priority over any other loan in respect of which the crofter or the cottar or his nominee as owner of the site of the dwelling-house is under any liability and shall be postponed only to such items as are referred to in heads (i), (ii) and (iii) of paragraph 4(b) of Schedule 2 to the Housing (Scotland) Act 1969.

Any heritable security which immediately before the execution of a conveyance in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this Act burdened the subjects conveyed shall, as from the date of recording of the conveyance in the Register of Sasines— and, unless the creditors in right of any such security otherwise agree, the landlord shall pay to them according to their respective rights and preferences any sum paid to him by the crofter or cottar as consideration for the subjects conveyed.

Where the Land Court authorise the resumption of a croft or a part thereof under section 12 of the Act of 1955, the crofter shall be entitled to receive from the landlord, in addition to any compensation payable to him under that section, a share in the value of the land so resumed the amount whereof shall be one half of the difference between, subject to subsection (5) below, the market value of the land (on the date on which resumption thereof is so authorised) as determined by the Land Court in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) below (less any compensation payable as aforesaid) and the crofting value thereof.

Where the resumption of the land is so authorised for some reasonable purpose which has been or is to be carried out by the landlord or by any person not being an authority possessing compulsory purchase powers, the market value for the purposes of subsection (1) above shall be a sum equal to the amount which the land, if sold in the open market by a willing seller (not being an authority as defined in section 1(1)(b) of the Community Land Act 1975) might be expected to realise.

Where the resumption is so authorised for some reasonable purpose which has been or is to be carried out by an authority possessing compulsory purchase powers (not being the landlord) on the acquisition by them of the land so resumed, the market value for the purposes of subsection (1) above shall be a sum equal to the amount of compensation payable by the authority to the landlord in respect of the acquisition: Provided that, where the land so resumed forms part only of the land acquired from the landlord by the authority, the market value shall be a sum equal to such amount as the Land Court may determine to be the proportion of the amount of compensation so payable by the authority which relates to the land so resumed.

Where the land so resumed forms or forms part of a common grazing, the share of the value of that land payable to the crofters sharing in the common grazing shall be apportioned among such crofters according to the proportion that the right in the common grazing of each such crofter bears to the total of such rights; and any sum so apportioned to such a crofter shall be deemed to be the share in the value of such land resumed to which he is entitled under subsection (1) above.

For the purposes of this section, where any development has been carried out by any person, other than the crofter or any of his predecessors in the tenancy, on the land which the Land Court have authorised the landlord to resume before such authorisation, there shall be deducted from the market value such amount thereof as, in the opinion of the Land Court, is attributable to that development.

In this section—

Where in pursuance of any enactment providing for the acquisition and taking of possession of land compulsorily by any person (in this section referred to as an " acquiring authority "), an acquiring authority acquire and take possession of a croft or a part thereof from a crofter, the crofter shall be entitled to receive from the acquiring authority, in addition to any compensation payable to him under section 114 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1845, a share in the value of the land of which possession has been taken, the amount whereof shall be one half of the difference between, subject to subsection (4) below, the market value of the land (on the date on which such possession is taken) as determined by the Land Court in accordance with subsection (2) below (less any compensation payable as aforesaid) and the crofting value thereof.

The market value for the purposes of subsection (1) above shall be a sum equal to the amount which the land, if sold in the open market by a willing seller (not being an authority as defined in section 1(1)(b) of the Community Land Act 1975) might be expected to realise assuming that the land were not land to which the Crofters (Scotland) Acts 1955 and 1961 apply.

Section 9(4) of this Act shall apply to land which has been taken possession of compulsorily by an acquiring authority as it applies to land of which the Land Court have authorised resumption.

For the purposes of this section, where any development has been carried out by any person, other than the crofter or any of his predecessors in the tenancy, on the land referred to in subsection (1) above before the land has been acquired by and taken possession of by the acquiring authority, there shall be deducted from the market value such amount thereof as, in the opinion of the Land Court, is attributable to that development.

In this section " crofting value ", in relation to land which has been taken possession of compulsorily, has the same meaning as it has in section 3 of this Act in relation to croft land.

The Secretary of State may provide assistance under section 22(2) of the Act of 1955 but not in respect of buildings other than dwelling-houses to— for a period of seven years from the date of the acquisition from the landlord.

The Secretary of State may provide assistance under the said section 22(2) or under section 31(1) of the Act of 1955 (building grants and loans to owner-occupiers of like economic status as crofters) towards the provision or improvement of roads, or water or electricity or gas supplies.

The provisions of Schedule 3 to the Act of 1955 (provisions as to security etc. of loans) shall apply in relation to any loan made under the said section 22(2) by virtue of subsection (1) above.

Where a person other than the landlord was infeft in the site of the dwelling-house immediately before the conveyance, the reference in subsection (1)(b) above to the landlord shall be construed as a reference to the landlord and such other person for their respective rights.

If any person, for the purpose of obtaining for himself or any other person, a grant or loan under a scheme made under section 22(1) of the Act of 1955 or under the said section 22(2), knowingly or recklessly makes a false statement he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £400.

Any scheme made under the said section 22(1) may be varied or revoked by a subsequent scheme made in like manner.

For subsection (7) of section 16 of the Act of 1955 (vacant crofts) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

For subsection (9) of the said section 16 there shall be substituted the following subsections—.

After the said section 16 there shall be inserted the following section—.

Section 8 of the Act of 1955 (assignation of croft) shall apply to a part of a croft, being a part consisting of any right in pasture or grazing land deemed by virtue of section 3(5) of that Act to form part of a croft, as it applies to a croft.

A crofter, who proposes to assign his croft or such a part as is referred to in subsection (1) above to a member of his family, shall not, if he obtains the consent of his landlord, be required to obtain the consent of the Commission under the said section 8; and a landlord who has given such consent shall notify the Commission of the assignation and the name of the assignee.

At the end of section 24 of the Act of 1955 (appointment, etc., of grazings committee) there shall be added the following subsection—.

Nothing in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 25(1) of the Act of 1955 shall preclude a grazings committee from performing the duties therein specified on land other than the common grazings.

After subsection (1) of the said section 25 there shall be inserted the following subsections—.

For section 26 (2) (b) of the Act of 1955 (common grazings regulations) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—.

Section 27(7) of the said Act (apportionment by the Commission of lands held runr(g) shall have effect as if after the word " manner " there were inserted the words " and subject to such conditions ".

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The books called the “Crofters Holdings Book” and the “Landholders Holdings Book” kept in pursuance of section 27 of the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 shall be kept by the principal clerk of the Land Court; and accordingly the said section 27 shall cease to have effect.

This Act shall apply to land an interest in which belongs to Her Majesty in right of the Crown and land an interest in which belongs to a government department or is held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department; but in its application to any land an interest in which belongs or is held as aforesaid this Act shall have effect subject to such modifications as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State.

Any regulations made by the Secretary of State under this section shall be embodied in a statutory instrument which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament any increase attributable to this Act in the sums payable out of moneys so provided under section 3(10) of the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911 and the Act of 1955.

All sums received by the Secretary of State by virtue of this Act shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

Expressions used in this Act and the Act of 1955 have the same meanings in this Act as in that Act.

In this Act—

Any reference in this Act to a member of a person's or ¢crofter's or former crofter's family is a reference to the wife or husband of that person or crofter or former crofter or his son-in-law or daughter-in-law or anyone who would be, or would in any circumstances have been, entitled to succeed to his estate on intestacy by virtue of the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964.

Any reference in this Act to any other enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, extended or applied by any other enactment including this Act.

The enactments mentioned in Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments respectively specified in that Schedule, being minor amendments or amendments consequential on the provisions of this Act.

The enactments set out in Schedule 3 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

The repeal by this Act of part of section 17 of the Act of 1955 and of sections 18 of that Act and 7 of the Act of 1961 shall not affect anything done or any right established under any such provision before the passing of this Act.

This Act may be cited as the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976.

This Act extends to Scotland only.