Textual Amendments
F1Ss. 5A, 5B inserted (25.6.2007) by Crofting Reform etc. Act 2007 (asp 7), ss. 8, 43(3) (with ss. 40, 43(2)); S.S.I. 2007/269, art. 2, sch.
F2S. 5AA and cross-heading inserted (1.10.2011) by Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (asp 14), ss. 33(2), 57(2) (with s. 57(4)); S.S.I. 2011/334, art. 3, sch. Pt. 1 (with art. 4)
(1)A crofter must not misuse or neglect the crofter's croft.
(2)A crofter misuses a croft where the crofter—
(a)wilfully and knowingly uses it otherwise than for the purpose of its being cultivated or put to such other purposeful use as is consented to under section 5C(4);
(b)fails to use the croft for the purposes of its being cultivated; or
(c)fails to put the croft to any such purposeful use.
(3)A crofter neglects a croft where the croft is not managed so as to meet the standards of good agricultural and environmental condition referred to in regulation 4 of, and the schedule to, the Common Agricultural Policy Schemes (Cross-Compliance) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (SSI 2004 No. 518).
(4)But where the crofter, in a planned and managed manner, engages in, or refrains from, an activity for the purpose of conserving—
(a)the natural beauty of the locality of the croft; or
(b)the flora and fauna of that locality,
the crofter's so engaging or refraining is not to be treated as misuse or neglect as respects the croft.
(5)If, immediately before the coming into force of section 7 of the Crofting Reform etc. Act 2007 (asp 7), the croft was being used for a subsidiary or auxiliary occupation by virtue of the right conferred by paragraph 3 of schedule 2 to this Act (as that paragraph then applied), any continuation of use for that occupation is not to be treated as misuse or neglect as respects the croft.
(6)The Scottish Ministers may, by order, amend the meaning of neglect in subsection (3) so as to substitute different standards for those for the time being mentioned in that subsection.]]
Textual Amendments
F3Ss. 5B, 5C substituted for s. 5B (1.10.2011) by Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (asp 14), ss. 33(3), 57(2) (with s. 57(4)); S.S.I. 2011/334, art. 3, sch. Pt. 1 (with art. 4)