The curse of 19B
Of the many problems afflicting crofting legislation, one in particular crosses my desk more than others: that of crofts which are not tenanted nor owner-occupied, but are a strange third type of croft. I call them “cursed” crofts, because their status means that their owners are not eligible for the crofting grants.
There are a few ways in which a croft can be cursed. The most common, in my experience, is where parts of a croft are in different ownership (rather than when several people own pro indiviso shares in the whole croft). The status of a croft here is “vacant”, and its owners are classified as landlords of parts of a vacant croft.
The problem was created by the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which introduced a definition of “owner-occupier crofter”. The definition was to allow those who had purchased their crofts to be regulated in much the same way as tenant crofters; an admirable objective. Hitherto, owner-occupiers were not mentioned in the legislation, which made it tricky for the Commission to regulate them effectively.
Unfortunately, the definition contains many exclusions. Sometimes the exclusion occurs when an area of croft land has been sold without having been decrofted or resumed. This means that the owner of the remainder of the croft does not own “a croft”, but merely part of a croft. Accordingly, they cannot fulfil the criteria at s. 19B (2), and they are not an owner-occupier crofter.
There are other circumstances which can result in a cursed croft. In some cases, the status of the croft (and therefore the crofter) can be cured. Sometimes this is simply not possible, although there may be alternative routes to achieving the same benefits.
The problem is exacerbated by the nature of the Crofting Commission’s Register of Crofts (ROC). The ROC is only as accurate as the information provided to the Commission. If an area of croft land is purchased and the Commission are not notified (very common indeed), the ROC will not record that purchaser as having an interest in the croft, and the status of the croft will be incorrectly noted. Therefore, great care should be taken when interpreting information held on the ROC.
