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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.
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