Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997

113 Power of heritable creditor to serve blight notice

(1) Where the whole or part of a hereditament or agricultural unit is comprised in blighted land and a person claims that—

(a) he is entitled as heritable creditor (by virtue of a power which has become exercisable) to sell an interest in the hereditament or unit, giving immediate vacant possession of the land,

(b) he has made reasonable endeavours to sell that interest or the land falls within paragraph 14 or 15 of Schedule 14 and the powers of compulsory acquisition remain exercisable, and

(c) in consequence of the fact that the hereditament or unit or a part of it was, or was likely to be, comprised in blighted land, he has been unable to sell that interest except at a price substantially lower than that for which it might reasonably have been expected to sell if no part of the hereditament or unit were, or were likely to be, comprised in such land,

then, subject to the provisions of this section, he may serve on the appropriate authority a notice in the prescribed form requiring that authority to purchase that interest to the extent specified in, and otherwise in accordance with, this Chapter.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), subsection (1) shall apply in relation to an interest in part of a hereditament or agricultural unit as it applies in relation to an interest in the whole of a hereditament or agricultural unit.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not enable a person—

(a) if his interest as heritable creditor is in the whole of a hereditament or agricultural unit, to make any claim or serve any notice under this section in respect of any interest in part of the hereditament or agricultural unit, or

(b) if his interest as heritable creditor is only in part of a hereditament or agricultural unit, to make or serve any such notice or claim in respect of any interest in less than the whole of that part.

(4) Notice under this section shall not be served unless the interest which the heritable creditor claims he has the power to sell—

(a) could be the subject of a notice under section 101 served by the person entitled to it on the date of service of the notice under this section, or

(b) could have been the subject of such a notice served by that person on a date not more than 6 months before the date of service of the notice under this section.

(5) Subject to sections 102(6) and (7) and 110(2) and (3), the grounds on which objection may be made in a counter-notice under section 102 to a notice under this section are those specified in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (4) of that section and, in a case to which it applies, the grounds specified in paragraph (d) of that subsection and also the following grounds—

(a) that, on the date of service of the notice under this section, the claimant had no interest as heritable creditor in any part of the hereditament or agricultural unit to which the notice relates;

(b) that (for reasons specified in the counter-notice) the claimant had not on that date the power referred to in subsection (1)(a);

(c) that the conditions specified in subsection (1)(b) and (c) are not fulfilled;

(d) that (for reasons specified in the counter-notice) neither of the conditions specified in subsection (4) was, on the date of service of the notice under this section, satisfied with regard to the interest referred to in that subsection.