and promotes the interests of crofting in Scotland
to secure the future of crofting.
Suspected Breach of Duties Notification
What is a Suspected Breach of Duties Notification
Under Section 26A of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 [“the 1993 Act”] the Crofting Commission will investigate a suspected non-compliance of duty by tenant and owner-occupier crofters.
Tenant and owner-occupier crofters have a duty to:
- be ordinarily resident on, or within 32 kilometres of, their croft
- cultivate and maintain the croft or put it to another purposeful use
- not to misuse or neglect the croft.
This notification is used to inform the Commission of a suspected breach of one or more of a crofter’s duties.
Who can use this notification?
A suspected breach of duty/duties notification can only be submitted by:
- a grazings committee
- a grazings constable
- an Assessor (as appointed by the Crofting Commission)
- a member of the crofting community* within the township in which the croft is situated, which is the subject of the suspected breach.
*A member of the crofting community is a person who occupies a croft in the same township as the croft to which the notification relates or holds shares in a common grazings associated with that township.
This is the correct form to use if want to notify the Commission of a crofter who you suspect is in breach of one or more of their duties, as detailed above.
A copy of the notification form you submit may be sent by the Commission to the crofter who is the subject of the report, and others, as per our privacy notice.
The notification must relate directly to one or more of a crofter’s duties.
The notification form will be returned if it contains information which is thought to be frivolous or vexatious,’. Frivolous or Vexatious means a complaint that has no reasonable or sound basis in fact or law, is without merit, and/or has been brought with the primary intent or harassing, discrediting or subduing a Respondent.
The Commission is unable to accept anonymous notifications.
Notification Form
To notify the Commission please complete the ‘Notification of Suspected Breach of Duty’ form.
You will be asked for information including:
- your details (name & address) and
- details of the croft to which the notification refers, including which duties you consider the crofter to be in breach of.
The investigation into a suspected breach of duties is a lengthy, legislative process.
As part of our investigation, we will give the crofter the opportunity to respond to the notification of suspected breach.
If the Commission is satisfied that the crofter is complying with their duties, no further action will be taken.
However, if the Commission considers the crofter is not complying with their duties, the following steps, as stipulated by Sections 26C & D of the 1993 Act, will be taken:
- a ‘Notice of Suspected Breach of Duty’ will be issued, giving the crofter the opportunity to make representations on its content within 28 days
- the Commission will (at the end of the representation period) decide whether the duties are being complied with
- if the Commission decides that the duties are not being complied with, the crofter will be given an opportunity to give an undertaking (in the form of written agreement) to comply with the duties, within a timescale, which the Commission consider reasonable in the circumstances.
Where a person agrees to comply with an undertaking, no further action will be taken until the period of the undertaking has expired. If at the end of the undertaking period the duties are being complied with, no further action will be taken.
Where any breach of duty remains unresolved, this could ultimately lead to the termination (permanent removal of the croft from the tenant) of the croft tenancy, or in the Commission directing an owner-occupier crofter to let the tenancy of their croft. This will always be a last resort after the crofter or owner-occupier crofter has had the opportunity to resolve the breach.
