Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955 (repealed 5.1.1994)

Cottars U.K.

28 Provisions as to cottars. U.K.

(1) When a cottar if not paying rent is removed from his dwelling and any land or buildings occupied by him in connection therewith, or if paying rent renounces his tenancy or is removed, he shall be entitled to compensation for any permanent improvement if—

(a) the improvement is suitable to the subject; and

(b) the improvement was executed or paid for by the cottar or any of his predecessors in the same family; and

(c) either the improvement was executed otherwise than in pursuance of a specific agreement in writing under which the cottar was bound to execute the improvement, or, if the improvement was executed in pursuance of such an agreement, the cottar has not received, by way of reduction of rent or otherwise, fair consideration for the improvement.

[F1 (2) The amount of the compensation payable under the foregoing subsection shall, failing agreement, be fixed by the Land Court, and—

(a) where the cottar renounced his tenancy or was removed from his subject before the commencement of the M1 Crofters (Scotland) Act 1961, the provisions of subsections (3), (4) and (5) of section fourteen of this Act (which relates to compensation to crofters for improvements) shall apply in relation to such cottar as they apply in relation to a crofter whose tenancy was terminated before the said commencement;

(b) where the cottar renounces his tenancy or is removed from his subject after the commencement of the said Act of 1961, the provisions of subsection (3) of section fourteen of this Act and of subsections (1) and (2) of section six of the said Act of 1961 (which relate to compensation to crofters for improvements) shall apply in relation to such cottar as they apply in relation to crofters.

(2A) Where compensation falls to be assessed under subsections (1) and (2) of section six of the said Act of 1961, as applied by paragraph (b) of the last foregoing subsection, in respect of any permanent improvement and the amount of such compensation is fixed by the Land Court under the last foregoing subsection, then if the cottar is qualified as mentioned in the next following subsection he may request the Land Court to determine the amount which would have been payable by way of compensation in respect of that improvement if the said Act of 1961 had not been passed and if the amount last mentioned is greater than the amount fixed by the Land Court as aforesaid, the difference between the two said amounts shall be payable to the cottar by the Secretary of State:

Provided that—

(a) the Secretary of State shall be entitled to set off any amount due to him by the cottar in respect of a loan made under subsection (2) of section twenty-two of this Act or section nine of the Act of 1911 against any sum payable to the cottar by the Secretary of State under this subsection; and

(b) this subsection shall not apply where compensation in respect of the improvement in question has on a previous occasion fallen to be assessed under subsections (1) and (2) of section six of the said Act of 1961, as applied as aforesaid.

(2B) The reference in the last foregoing subsection to a cottar who is qualified is a reference to a cottar—

(a) whose occupation of the subject in question began before the commencement of the said Act of 1961, or

(b) who occupies such subject as heir-at-law, legatee or assignee of his immediate predecessor as occupier of the subject, and each of whose predecessors (being in each case a person whose occupation of the subject began after the commencement of the said Act of 1961) occupied the subject as heir-at-law, legatee or assignee of his immediate predecessor.]

(3) The Secretary of State shall have the like powers to provide assistance by way of loan, grant and the supply of building or other materials for the erection, improvement or rebuilding of dwelling-houses and other buildings for cottars as he has to provide assistance for the erection, improvement or rebuilding of dwelling-houses and other buildings for crofters, and subsections (2), (4), (5) and (7) of section twenty-two of this Act shall apply accordingly.

(4) In this section—

• “cottar” means the occupier of a dwelling-house situate in the crofting counties with or without land who pays no rent, or the tenant from year to year of a dwelling-house situate as aforesaid who resides therein and who pays therefor an annual rent not exceeding six pounds in money, whether with or without garden ground but without arable or pasture land.

• “predecessors in the same family” means in relation to a cottar the wife or husband of the cottar and any person to whom the cottar or the wife or husband of the cottar might, failing nearer heirs, have succeeded in case of intestacy.

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 28(2), (2A), (2B), substituted for s. 28(2) by Crofters (Scotland) Act 1961 (c. 58), Sch. 1 Pt. I para. 7

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 28(1) excluded by Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976 (c. 21), s. 6(2)(c)

Marginal Citations

M1 1961 c. 58.