More than three decades after the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 entered into force in 1981, the law governing the registration of title to property in Scotland is being modernised. So how will changes to land registration in Scotland affect you?
As of Monday 8th December 2014 the relevant law will be the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012, which aims to:
- update the law surrounding the registration of rights to land in the Land Register
- introduce electronic documents into the conveyancing process
- increase Land Register registration
What are the implications of this new legislation?
A paperless Register
The 1979 Act started the move from a deeds-based system of title registration (Register of Sasines) to the modern, map-based system (Land Register). At present, property only swaps to the Land Register if transferred after 1981 and for value. Properties transferred without charge, such as a transfer on inheritance, would not trigger registration. Consequently, only about 21% of Scotland's land mass has migrated over to the Land Register.
The 2012 Act will rapidly increase this as now all transfers of property will trigger registration in the Land Register. This can also be done voluntarily and property owners may choose to take advantage of this to facilitate a future sale.
Electronic conveyancing
The 2012 Act allows certain electronic documents the equivalent status of paper documents through amendment of the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995. Similarly, land and charge certificates will cease to be issued and instead will be replaced by email notification, as will application receipts. Although the response to previous drives towards electronic methods has been largely unenthusiastic, the reaction to these more instantaneous methods remains to be seen.
Advance Notices and purchaser protection
Once your title is registered, you own the property. However, there is inevitably some delay between receiving the deeds and the actual registration (which can take several weeks). This creates a period of exposure. To counter this, a solicitor provides a letter of obligation, essentially a guarantee, which protects the owner over a period (usually up to 14 days) to allow time for registration.
Building on this, as of 8th December 2014, an Advance Notice can be registered. This will ensure that, for 35 days, no other disposition or competing advance notice can be registered. Buyers, and lenders, will now hopefully rest easier in this interim period than before.
If you'd like advice on the changes to land registration in Scotland from lawyers who specialise in property law get in touch with one of the team.
