Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1886 c. 29 |
Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886
(49 & 50 Vict.) CHAPTER 29.
An Act to amend the Law relating to the Tenure of Land by Crofters in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and for other purposes relating thereto.
[25th June 1886]
W HEREAS it is expedient to amend the law relating to the tenure of land by crofters in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland:
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
I.
1 A croft shall not be removed except for breach of statutory conditions.
1. A crofter shall not be removed from the holding of which he is tenant except in consequence of the breach of one or more of the conditions following (in this Act referred to as statutory conditions), but he shall have no power to assign his tenancy.
(1) (1.) The crofter shall pay his rent at the terms at which it is due and payable:
(2) (2.) The crofter shall not execute any deed purporting to assign his tenancy:
(3) (3.) The crofter shall not, to the prejudice of the interest of the landlord, persistently injure the holding by the dilapidation of buildings or, after notice has been given by the landlord to the crofter not to commit, or to desist from, the particular injury specified in such notice, by the deterioration of the soil:
(4) (4.) The crofter shall not, without the consent of his landlord in writing, subdivide his holding or sublet the same or any part thereof, or erect or suffer to be erected thereon any dwelling-house otherwise than in substitution for those already upon the holding at the time of the passing of this Act:
(5) (5.) The crofter shall not persistently violate any written condition signed by him for the protection of the interest of the landlord or of neighbouring crofters which is legally applicable to the holding, and which the Crofters Commission shall find to be reasonable:
(6) (6.) The crofter shall not do any act whereby he becomes notour bankrupt within the meaning of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act, 1856 , and the Debtors (Scotland) Act, 1880 , and shall not execute a trust deed for behoof of creditors:
(7) (7.) The landlord, or any person or persons authorised by him in that behalf (he or they making reasonable compensation for any damage to be done or occasioned thereby), shall have the right to enter upon the holding for any of the purposes following (that is to say):
Mining or taking minerals, or digging or searching for minerals;
Quarrying or taking stone, marble, gravel, sand, clay, slate, or other workable mineral;
Cutting or taking timber or peats, excepting timber and other trees planted by the crofter or his predecessors in the holding, being of the same family, or that may be necessary for ornament or shelter, and excepting also such peats as may be required for the use of the holding;
Opening or making roads, fences, drains, and watercourses;
Passing and re-passing to and from the shore of the sea or any loch with or without horses and carriages for exercising any right of property or other right belonging to the landlord;
Viewing or examining at reasonable times the state of the holding and all buildings or improvements thereon;
Hunting, shooting, fishing, or taking game or fish, wild birds, or vermin. The word ‘game’ for the purposes of this subsection means deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges, quails, landrails, grouse, blackgame, capercailzie, ptarmigan, woodcock, snipe, wild duck, widgeon, and teal;
And the crofter shall not obstruct the landlord, or any person or persons authorised by him in that behalf as aforesaid, in the exercise of any right reserved or conferred by this subsection.
(8) (8.) The crofter shall not on his holding, without the consent of his landlord, open any house for the sale of intoxicating liquors.
2 Provision for resumption by landlord.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions contained in the preceding section, the Crofters Commission may, on the application of the landlord, and upon being satisfied that he desires to resume the holding or part thereof, for some reasonable purpose, having relation to the good of the holding or of the estate, including the using, letting, or feuing the land proposed to be resumed, for the building of dwellings, or for small allotments for fishermen, or for harbours, piers, boat shelters, or other buildings connected with the fishing industry, or for churches or other places of religious worship, or for schools, or for planting, or for roads practicable for carriages from the croft or crofts to the high road or the sea shore, authorise the resumption thereof by the landlord upon such terms and conditions as the Crofters Commission shall think fit, and may require the crofter to surrender his holding, in whole or in such part, to the landlord, upon the landlord making adequate compensation to the crofter, either by letting to him other land of equivalent value in the neighbourhood, or by reduction of rent, or by compensation in money, or otherwise as the Crofters Commission shall determine.
3 Removal of crofter for breach of conditions.
3. When one year's rent of the holding, but less than two years rent, is due and unpaid, the crofter shall be liable to be removed in manner provided by section twenty-seven of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1883.
When two years rent of the holding is due and unpaid, or when the crofter has broken any other of the statutory conditions, he shall forfeit his tenancy, and shall be liable to be removed in manner provided by the fourth section of the Act of Sederunt anent Removing of the fourteenth day of December one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six.
II.
4 Present rent.
4. The rent payable, as one of the statutory conditions, shall be the present rent, that is to say, the yearly rent including money and any prestations other than money, payable for the year current at the passing of this Act, unless and until the present rent is altered in manner provided by this Act.
5 Rent altered by agreement.
5. The rent may be altered by agreement between the landlord and the crofter to such amount and for such period as may be agreed on; and the rent so agreed on shall be the rent payable by the crofter so long as such agreement subsists, and after the expiry thereof so long as no different rent shall have been fixed by the Crofters Commission upon the application of the landlord or the crofter, and so long as no new agreement between the landlord and the crofter shall have been made.
6 Fixed rent.
(1)6. (1.) The landlord or the crofter may apply to the Crofters Commission to fix the fair rent to be paid by such crofter to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the Crofters Commission, after hearing the parties and considering all the circumstances of the case, holding, and district, and particularly after taking into consideration any permanent or unexhausted improvements on the holding and suitable thereto which have been executed or paid for by the crofter or his predecessors in the same family, may determine what is such fair rent, and pronounce an order accordingly.
(2) (2.) The rent fixed by the Crofters Commission (in this Act referred to as the fixed rent) shall be deemed to be the rent payable by the crofter as from the first term of Whitsunday or Martinmas next succeeding the decision of the Crofters Commission, and shall come in place of the present rent, and, save by mutual agreement, the fixed rent shall not be altered for a period of seven years from such term.
(3) (3.) Where the Crofters Commission shall fix a rent which shall be less in amount than the present rent, the crofter shall be entitled, at the next payment of rent, to deduct from the amount of the fixed rent such sum or sums as he may have paid over and above the amount of the fixed rent in respect of the period between the date of the notice of application to fix the fair rent and the date when such rent was fixed.
(4) (4.) When an application is lodged with the Crofters Commission to fix a fair rent, it shall be in the power of the Crofters Commission, either under the same or under another application of the crofter, to sist all proceedings for the removal of the crofter in respect of non-payment of rent till the said application is finally determined, upon such terms as to payment of rent or otherwise as they shall think fit.
(5) (5.) In the proceedings on such application the Crofters Commission shall take an account of the amount of arrears of rent due or to become due before the application is finally determined, and may take evidence of all the circumstances which have led to such arrears, and shall decide whether, in view of such circumstances, the whole or what part of such arrears ought to be paid, and whether in one payment or by instalments, and at what dates the...
To continue reading
Request your trial