and promotes the interests of crofting in Scotland
to secure the future of crofting.
Acquiring Croft Land
01/05/2018
Have you acquired croft land? Have you informed the Crofting Commission you are the new owner of the land? If not, you could be losing out on vital information about your croft.
Chief Executive of the Crofting Commission, Bill Barron explains: “Many people do not realise it is essential the Commission is informed of any changes to the ownership of a croft so the Register of Crofts (ROC) can be updated. If this is not done any correspondence regarding that croft will be sent to the person who is named in the ROC and if we have not been informed of a change, this could be the previous owner, and new owners are missing out on information. Also, if any application for grant aid is made to SGRPID and you are not recorded in the ROC as the owner-occupier crofter your claim may be rejected.
The issue has been further highlighted through the recent Crofting Census returns when over 100 people contacted us to say the land had been sold and they no longer have an interest in the croft. However, we are unable to update the ROC on the basis of information provided by the outgoing owner, as details of what has been acquired and by whom must be provided by the new owner.
It is also very important that anyone who buys croft land tells us if grazing shares were included in the purchase. The reason for this is, if grazing shares were not included in the purchase they are then “deemed” to be a croft in their own right and have a separate entry in the ROC.
We would therefore urge anyone who has acquired croft land over the last few years to check our ROC Online www.crofting.scotland.gov.uk/register-of-crofts-roc to make sure the correct details are entered against their croft and if the details are not correct to complete and return a Notification of Change of Ownership of Croft Land form to the Commission, which is available from our website.
