In order to fulfil the statutory definition of owner-occupier crofter, a person must satisfy the 3 conditions set out in Section 19B of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993. The first of those conditions provides that an owner-occupier crofter must be the owner of a croft. The croft can be owned by more than one person, but those persons must own the entire croft jointly and their title deed must be in their joint names. Those persons who own only part of a croft are therefore not considered by the Commission to be owner-occupier crofters because they cannot satisfy all 3 conditions. Accordingly, they are considered by the Commission to be landlords of part of a vacant croft. It is open to the Commission to regulate that person’s use of the croft under sections 23 – 25 of the 1993 Act (rather than sections 26A-26K, which apply to owner-occupier crofters. Furthermore, landlords of part of a vacant croft cannot submit an application for division under section 19D because such an application must be made by an owner-occupier croft. Similarly they cannot submit an application to let their part of the croft on a short term lease under section 29A as this option is only available to owner-occupier crofters. Situations like this may have arisen due to the transfer of ownership of parts of a croft on the (mistaken) assumption that the croft would be automatically divided. Any division of a croft (whether by a tenant crofter or owner-occupier crofter) can only be effected by the Commission, following an application and subsequent affirmative decision of the Commission.