The Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable Development: information for communities

Steps To Be Taken Before Submitting An Application For Consent

Community support:

A ballot of the eligible voters in the community's defined area must be undertaken during the six months immediately prior to the date the application is submitted to Scottish Ministers. You may undertake the ballot yourselves or may wish to consider seeking professional advice or services. Within 14 days of the ballot being held the community body must publish the results in an online or paper edition of a newspaper circulating in the area and if you have a publicly accessible website or webpage, on that also.

The ballot result must be submitted to Scottish Ministers within three weeks (21 days) of the ballot taking place. If you are submitting the application for consent to Scottish Ministers before the expiry of the 21 day period, you must include the ballot result and supporting documents as part of the application.

Evidence of requesting a transfer of the land

The community body will have to provide evidence of a written request to transfer the land or, as the case may be, the tenant's interest prior to submitting a right to buy application. The request must have been sent to the owner or tenant at least six months prior to the application. The community body should use the correct form to request a transfer of the land (the form can be found on the Scottish Government website). The request should be reasonable and the community body will need to include the terms of any offer that they made in their application.

Ownership

• It is important the community body provides Scottish Ministers with the correct landowner and, where applicable, tenant details. Ownership of land is dealt with by Registers of Scotland who can assist in identifying ownership. http://www.ros.gov.uk/.
• The community body must identify any creditors in a standard security (e.g. mortgage lenders).
• Companies House will provide up-to-date details of a company's registered address.

If the ownership and, where applicable, tenant's details are incorrect the application will be declined.