The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Crofting => Topic started by: shygirl on March 29, 2014, 07:29:30 am
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so what are responsibilities of the landlord of a tenanted croft?
are there on-going maintenance of drains / fencing?
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I stand to be corrected but I don't think the landlord has any obligations to things like this. I know there are rules about rents and tenancy which are set in legislation but as a tenant crofter you have a lot of rights, this as a trade off means the landlord doesn't have many!
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iv seen a place for sale which is tenanted - so its the landlord ownership part which is for sale, as the tenants are to stay longterm.
what is the investment for a landlord in this situation - is it just annual rent return and a hope that the land increases in value before it is sold on? or hunting rights maybe?
I did see that the tenants all have a right to buy their house plot and/or croft, so it seems a poor investment for a potential landlord. or am I missing something?
the particular croft also has a clawback on it so that's reduces any profit for development.
thanks
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The rent for a croft is based on the value of bare, unimproved land. This is why croft rents are so low.
Any improvements (buildings, drains, turning rough heather into green grass etc) are done by the crofter at the crofters expense and therefore belong to the crofter (even though the land they sit on belongs to someone else). When you buy a croft tenancy a lot of what you are paying for is the improvements.
For the uninitiated it is a complicated way of doing things but there is (or was) logic. Prior to the crofters act (1883) Landlords did nothing to improve their land however if a crofter did anything to improve his croft the landlord would revalue the croft and increase the rent (even though the landlord had contributed nothing). This resulted in the Highlanders living in some of the worst squalor in Europe. If a man built a bigger house, installed running water or even put a chimney in his house the rent would go up and he ran the risk of being unable to pay and evicted (and therefore all the improvements reverting to the landowner). A massive disincentive to making things better.
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I read somewhere that if the tenant improved the land - the landlord had to pay the tenant for the increase in valuation. there was a highland estate that was rented out to a rich guy - who then spent thousands and thousands on covering the whole estate in trees. the original owner lost his land as he couldn't afford to pay the tenant the value of the trees at the end of the lease.
does that situation occur in crofting?
another question - when you buy a tenancy - how long does the tenancy last? am I right in thinking it is forever as long as whoever you leave works it? or decides to sell it?
or is it more like the leasehold of a house ie 99 yrs?
sorry for such questions - I cant seem to find the answers on the CC website.
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The tenancy of a croft is heritable so passes on to the crofters family. It's not a time bound lease.
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My parents are purchasing their crofts as after a bad experience with the CC and my croft ending up in my ex husbands name, they have decided the safest option to guarantee my inheriting the ground is to buy it and have done with it!
if your landlords are like mine, they haven't done anything regarding maintenance etc since they took over