The New System

 

 

The 2012 Act realigns the law of land registration with property law. It also puts on a statutory footing many of the policies and practices the Keeper has developed since the introduction of the land register in 1981. New concepts will be introduced, such as advance notices, and new rules that will govern how the Keeper registers deeds and makes up the register. As a result, the Keeper has conducted a review of existing land register policies and practices to ensure that they are compliant with the new law and identified some new policies and practices that had to be put into place.

There are additional triggers for registration. Amongst others, all transfers of property not yet registered in the Land Register – whether for value or not – will trigger first registration.

The cadastral map is the foundation of the new system of registration, and is effectively one large map, based on the Ordnance Survey map, covering the whole of Scotland. Each registered property will be a “cadastral unit” and be allocated a “cadastral number”.

Similar to the English system of priority searches, Advance Notices will protect deeds for a period of 35 days, meaning that the deed to which the Advance Notice refers will take priority over any other deed submitted during that time.

The new rules commenced 8 December 2014.

A link can be found within the Additional Resources section below.