The Crofters etc. Building Grants (Scotland) Regulations 1990

Recovery and repayment of grant

8.—(1) Subject to the provisions of section 26(11) of the Agriculture Act 1967(1), if at any time during the period during which the recorded conditions apply to any dwellinghouse the Secretary of State has reason to believe that there has been a failure to comply with any of those conditions or has reason to believe that there will within six months from the date of the notice aftermentioned be such a failure, the Secretary of State may give to the recipient of the grant notice in writing requiring him to make payment of a sum calculated in accordance with paragraph (4) of this regulation in repayment of the grant and the recipient of the grant shall, unless he satisfies the Secretary of State that there has not been or will not be such a failure as aforesaid, make payment of that sum to the Secretary of State accordingly.

(2) In the event of any such dwellinghouse being destroyed or so damaged by fire during the said period as to be rendered unfit for human habitation the Secretary of State may give to the recipient of the grant notice in writing requiring him to make payment of a sum calculated in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (4) of this regulation in repayment of the grant and the recipient of the grant shall make payment of that sum to the Secretary of State accordingly.

(3) The recipient of a grant may repay the grant by making payment to the Secretary of State of a sum calculated in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (4) of this regulation or such lesser amount as, in the circumstances of any particular case, the Secretary of State in his discretion may determine.

(4) The sum referred to in paragraphs (1) (2) and (3) of this regulation shall be a sum bearing the same proportion to the grant made in respect of the dwellinghouse in question as the period between the date of the notice given under paragraph (1) or paragraph (2) of this regulation in relation to that dwellinghouse or, when paragraph (3) of this regulation applies, the date of repayment, and the expiration of the period specified in regulation 6 of these Regulations, bears to the whole of that period, together with interest at the rate of 12½ per centum per annum on that sum from the date on which payment of the grant or the instalment was made until repayment.

(5) Where the tenancy of a croft upon which is situated a dwellinghouse, or where a cottar’s tenancy of a dwellinghouse in respect of which a grant has been made terminates, the owner shall be deemed to be the recipient of the grant during any period during which the croft or, as the case may be, the dwellinghouse, remains unlet and unoccupied.

(6) There shall be deemed to have been a failure to comply with the recorded conditions if the recipient of the grant sells, lets or otherwise disposes of the dwellinghouse–

(a) where the recipient of the grant is a crofter, otherwise than–

(i) to a member of his family or;

(ii) to another crofter who in the opinion of the Secretary of State requires and will occupy the dwellinghouse for the purpose of cultivating a croft;

(b) in any other case, to a person other than a crofter who in the opinion of the Secretary of State requires and will occupy the dwellinghouse for the purpose of cultivating a croft.

(7) There shall be deemed to have been a failure to comply with the recorded conditions if the recipient of a grant for a dwellinghouse who is an owner-occupier without the prior consent of the Secretary of State, assigns or disposes of the croft land to which that dwellinghouse pertains to a person who is not a member of the family.

(8) It shall be no objection to a notice given under this regulation in respect of a failure existing at the date at which the notice is given that the notice was not given immediately, or at any particular interval, after the existence of the failure first came to the Secretary of State’s knowledge, or that the failure first occurred before the re cipient of the grant to whom the notice is given became tenant of the croft, or, as the case may be, of the dwellinghouse, or the owner-occupier of the holding on which the dwellinghouse in question is situated, or that the Secretary of State could have required repayment of the grant at a date earlier than that at which the notice was given.

(1)

1967 c. 22.