Agricultural and Rural Property Solicitors in Scotland

Rural property under Scots law

Buying or selling rural property in Scotland involves the same core steps as any other purchase: offer, missives, title examination, settlement and registration in the Land Register of Scotland. What makes it different is everything that sits around the title, including tenancies, access rights, water, drainage, farm support and the growing body of land reform law.

We act for farmers, landowners, smallholders and people moving to the country. Typical transactions include whole farms and parts of farms, bare land and grazing, steadings and conversion opportunities, crofts and croft house sites, and rural houses with land attached.

Boundaries, access and services

Rural titles are often older and less precise than urban ones. Many are still in the old Sasine Register and will be mapped in the Land Register for the first time on sale, which is when boundary questions tend to surface. We check:

• Boundaries against the Ordnance Survey map and what is on the ground, including fences, dykes and field boundaries that have moved over the years
• Private access by servitude or by public road, and whether shared tracks come with maintenance obligations
• Public access, including core paths and rights of way, alongside the general right of responsible access under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003
• Water and drainage, including private water supplies and the rights to lay and maintain pipes over neighbouring land, and whether septic tanks and treatment plants are registered with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Minerals and sporting rights, which are sometimes held separately from the land

Agricultural tenancies

Much Scottish farmland is let, and the type of tenancy makes a very large difference to the value and to what a buyer can do. Secure tenancies under the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991 can pass down a family for generations, while more recent tenancy types under the 2003 Act have fixed terms.

Tenants with a secure 1991 Act tenancy can register a pre-emptive right to buy with Registers of Scotland. A registration lasts five years and must be renewed. If a landlord wants to sell land subject to a registered interest, the tenant must be given the first opportunity to buy. We search the registers before a sale, so a landlord does not market land the tenant has the right to buy first, and a buyer does not buy into a dispute.

Crofts

Crofting law applies in the former crofting counties, mainly in the Highlands and Islands, and it sits on top of ordinary property law. We establish whether you are buying an owner-occupied croft, a croft tenancy or a vacant croft, because each has different consents and obligations. The Crofting Commission must approve an assignation of a croft tenancy, and every crofter must meet the statutory duties of residence and use. If you want to build or sell a house on croft land, the site may need to be decrofted first.

Tax and farm support

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. Land that is part of a working farm is non-residential, and a purchase that combines a farmhouse with commercial farmland is taxed as a mixed transaction at the non-residential rates. Those are 0% up to £150,000, 1% up to £250,000 and 5% above that. Revenue Scotland will look at the evidence of commercial farming, so we make sure it is in place before we submit the return.

Farm support. We deal with the transfer of payment entitlements and any obligations under grant or forestry schemes, so that the right person receives the support and no clawback is triggered by the sale.

Transparency and land reform

Two sets of rules now affect rural ownership in particular:

• The Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land. If land is owned through a trust, partnership, company or overseas entity, the people who control it may need to be recorded in this register. It has been enforceable since April 2024, and failing to register can lead to a fine of up to £5,000.
• The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2025. The Act introduces new duties for owners of large landholdings of more than 1,000 hectares, including land management plans, advance notice of some sales to allow community bodies to register an interest, and powers for Ministers to require sales in lots. The first parts of the Act came into force in March 2026, but the provisions on large landholdings were still awaiting commencement at the time of writing.

Community bodies also have rights to register an interest in land under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Where a community interest is registered, the owner cannot sell to anyone else without first following the statutory procedure, so we check the register before any sale.

Working with your other advisers

Rural sales and purchases usually involve land agents, surveyors, accountants and sometimes forestry or renewable energy specialists. We work with them, so the legal work fits the valuation, the tax planning and the timetable. If you are buying a rural house without farmland, our residential purchase service covers the process, and for business premises in a rural area, see our commercial purchase service.