Battle to decroft house plot is ‘making family ill’
A family living in a leaking caravan on their croft at Loch Goil are blaming their illhealth on a year of battling with the Crofting Commission.
Adrian and Jennifer Hart have planning permission to build their family home on Cormonachan Croft; but in order to get a mortgage to pay for the build they must decroft the house plot – and this process has taken more than a year, dozens of unanswered calls and led to two formal complaints.
The Harts live on the croft with their 11- and 14-year-old daughters in a caravan they describe as ‘inadequate, damp, and quite frankly, falling apart’.
They had hoped to have their house completed by now and to have moved out of the caravan, but have become increasingly frustrated in their dealings with the Crofting Commission.
Adrian said: ‘We’ve been told misinformation, been lied to and ignored.
‘We applied to decroft our house plot on our croft in March 2021; since then we have had four people deal with the case.
‘There has been a series of errors where the case has changed hands and the case has sat around each time. Nobody has communicated with us.’
Jennifer told the Argyllshire Advertiser: ‘I have been unwell with an infection caused by the leak and damp in the caravan.
‘We never expected we would have had to stay in the caravan so long. Adrian can’t sleep at night due to the stress.’
Adrian added: ‘Once it’s under our control I can cope, but it’s all out of our hands and that’s what causes the lack of sleep.
‘We have bills to pay – we still owe the builder half the money for the foundations; he’s been very patient but it’s not how we want to be dealing with people.’
An electronics engineer, Adrian is able to work online from the caravan, as does Jennifer, whose work supports adults with autism into employment and involves a mix of commuting and remote working.
The Harts’ daughters Abigail and Isla attend local schools and, along with their puppy Arto, have settled well in Loch Goil.
Adrian said: ‘The local community has been so welcoming and friendly; people are keen to know what we’re doing here.
‘This piece of land had been abandoned scrubland for years and years and had suffered from irresponsible camping.
‘Our decrofting application is now at a point in which it was meant to go to the review panel three weeks ago, but nobody is responding to our emails or phone calls.
‘Just this week we have sent three emails and made four phone calls and yet we’ve had no response.
‘We are now at a point in which we have no money, we need our decrofting certificate for our mortgage before we lose it.
‘It is utterly outrageous that we have gone through the process of obtaining planning permission and a building warrant within a national park, notoriously a difficult process, but that pales in comparison to the struggle we’ve had with the Crofting Commission.’
The Argyllshire Advertiser contacted the Crofting Commission for a response and was told that staffing shortages are to blame for delays.
The reply stated: ‘Regulatory cases are experiencing a delay of around 12 weeks in addition to normal processing times. This is due to the increased case load and recent loss of experienced staff.
‘We are expanding our regulatory team to address this and we expect the additional staff to be employed and operational within the next three months.
‘We normally respond to emails within 20 working days. We are however experiencing delays with inquiries so unfortunately in some cases it may take longer to respond.’