Croft purchase and sale - part 2

BENEFITS AND BURDENS

This is the second in a series 4 posts on the purchasing of tenanted crofts by crofters.

In simple terms, when a crofter negotiates to purchase either a croft house and garden ground or croft land from her landlord, the landlord will usually grant, in addition to ownership of the land itself, a number of rights which will benefit the land being purchased. Conditions may also be imposed which burden the crofter’s ownership.

In terms of the former, the crofter may require rights to ensure she can access her croft from a public road (if the land being purchased does not lie beside a public road). The crofter may also require rights for an electricity, water and telephone supply, or rights to allow drainage to a septic tank or other private drainage system.

Conditions which may burden a crofter’s ownership might include an obligation to maintain an access road, or to fence the land which is being purchased.

Landlords will also commonly reserve servitude rights over the land being purchased, in respect of existing services serving other properties (usually neighbouring land).

The rights and conditions which are agreed in each case vary widely. In some cases, the inability of parties to reach agreement on these matters result in the crofter making an application to the Scottish Land Court. Croft purchase cases are not now (it seems) as common as they once were, but you can find references on the Court’s web site to some of the interesting case law since 1976.