Archiving of documents

47.1 Introduction

In terms of section 6(5) of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 the Keeper is obliged to issue, to any person applying, an authenticated copy of any title sheet, part thereof, or of any document referred to therein; and such copy, which is called an ‘office copy’, is accepted for all purposes as sufficient evidence of the contents of the original. In addition, and for a variety of reasons, the Keeper may have cause to produce or examine other documents evidencing events or given effect to in a title sheet, at any time in its history.

To enable the Keeper to meet these requirements, a record of all relevant documents submitted in support of an application for registration must be readily available. It is an important part of a registration officer's duties to identify and instruct the archiving of the relevant documents required to create this record.

47.2 Items to be archived

There follows a list of items which must be archived with each application:

All application forms and form 4 inventories, but not report forms 10, 11, 12, 13, P16 and P17 (unless reason dictates otherwise)
The ‘live’ deeds in respect of which registration is being sought (e.g. the deed inducing registration, any standard securities, discharges of an existing heritable security) and any deed within the prescriptive progress of title which has not been recorded in a register under the control of the Keeper (e.g. a death certificate, certificate of registration of change of name and affidavits) - Note that the SDLT certificate should not be archived.
Any ancillary forms, both external as completed by the agent, and internal as completed by Agency staff (such as ‘L14A’ with regard to joint recording/registration)
Any superseded deed (e.g. re engrossed deed replaced original)
A duly recorded deed to which has been added some further matter which is unrecorded, or which contained a plan but was recorded prior to 1934, or where the plan attached was not originally photocopied because it was too large (except in the case of a preservation deed or where a duplicate plan was ingiven)
Any common deed where the burdens are not edited so as to be usable by any property affected by them (an element note to this effect must be added to the entry for the deed on the LRS to identify which application the deed has been archived under).
All relevant correspondence with the agent, including prior correspondence with Pre-Registration Enquiries Section (except for simple covering letters or letters of acknowledgement). Note that it is not necessary to archive the results of a search in the Register of Inhibitions unless there are matches which would require to be entered in the title sheet. In this instance there will also be correspondence with the agent and the print should be archived as part of that process.
Any ‘papers apart’ which detail decisions and instructions made and given in the course of examination of the application. It is stressed, however, that the preferred method of recording such matters is through use of the ‘title notes and instructions’ (Title N&I) function on the Land Register System (LRS), wherever practical.
If there is correspondence to and from the agent after the agent has received the land certificate and/or charge certificate this must also be archived, along with a record of any action taken, using form L202 (see also ‘Add to archive’ below). Similarly, any telephone calls to and from an agent in connection with a title sheet after the agent has received the land certificate and/or charge certificate should be recorded on a separate document and added to the archive using the said form L202.

For applications which are identified with an Integrated Registration Project (IRP) case ID on the application workdesk and flysheet the first two categories will have been archived prior to registration officers receiving the application. On completion of registration it is the responsibility of the legal examiner to arrange for any additional documentation to be added to the archive record.

For applications without an IRP case ID no documents will have been archived and the legal examiner will need to arrange archiving of all categories of documents.

Table of Contents

47.3 Application affecting more than one title sheet

Where a single application affects two or more title sheets, the documents which are common to each title are available on the archive record for each application but not printed out. There is a note added to the casebag for each application that does not have the original deed - "FORMS & DEEDS AVAILABLE USING FIND AND VIEW WITHIN BOPS Note: Use application number to search" so you can view the documents under your own title number.

For applications archived under the microfiche or EAS systems, where a single deed affected two or more title sheets, the deed and documents common to each title would be archived under one title number and cross reference made thereto in the form of a note, identifying where the original documents could be viewed, archived under the other title numbers.

47.4 Archiving Guidelines

As indicated previously, for applications which are identified with an IRP case ID, the application forms, live deeds and any current links in title will have been added to the archive prior to the case being released to registration officers. For documents that the registration officer has to have added, and for applications with no IRP case ID, the following procedures apply:

47.4.1 Application where there is no IRP case ID (documents have not been archived)

No documents will have been archived; the legal registration officer should complete both archive and despatch instructions and include these along with all of the documents that require to be archived (in accordance with the above list) in a folder in the casebag; the application flysheet should be at the front of the folder for ease of moving and locating the case, followed by the archive and despatch instructions, forms, deeds and miscellaneous documents. The application should be released to ARCHIVE.

47.4.2 Application where there is an IRP case ID (documents have been archived)

As indicated previously the application forms and live deeds will have been archived prior to the case being released to the registration officer and therefore only documents that fall within any of the criteria 3 to 9 above require to be added to the archive record. In this instance it is the responsibility of the registration officer to make copies of the documents and send these with completed archiving instructions so that they can be added to the archive record (these documents are destroyed after archive which is why copies are required). The application should be released to DESPATCH.

47.4.3 Combination of attached applications

For each application that does not have an IRP case ID the legal registration officer should complete archive instructions and include these along with all of the documents that require to be archived (in accordance with the above list) in a folder in the casebag; the application flysheet should be at the front of the folder for ease of moving and locating the case, followed by the archive and despatch instructions, forms, deeds and miscellaneous documents. For each application with an IRP case ID, please make copies of any additional documents that require to be archived along with the archive instructions and keep this is the relevant casebag.

Please also complete Despatch instructions for the whole bundle. The applications should be released to ARCHIVE.

47.5 ‘Add to Archive’ requests

Any correspondence received after an application has been completed must be added to the archive record and the appropriate Add to Archive request form must be completed.

If the material to be archived relates to a particular application the request form should bear that application number and the documents will be added to the archive record relating to that application.

For material which relates to a registered title, but not to a particular application, a general application number should be used e.g. 99XXX99999 (entering the county as applicable). In these cases, with no application number, there would not be a date of registration either, so the date of the instruction to add to archive would be used instead.

47.6 Retrieval of images from Archive

Depending on when an application was registered the archive will be held on one of three systems; which system the archive is stored on will be dependent on when the registration process was completed.

Prior to mid 1999 the archive was held on microfiche; the microfiche have subsequently been converted to digital images and the archive record can be searched using a programme know as "Fishfinder" available through the intranet.

For applications that were completed after mid 1999 but received prior to 1 March 2010, the archive will generally be held on the Electronic Archiving System; again this can be searched via a link to EAS on the intranet. Some applications received prior to 1 March 2010 may also be archived using BOPs if they were released to Archive after the EAS scanners were decommissioned.

As indicated, applications received for registration after 1 March 2010 will be archived using BOPs and this can be accessed using the BOPs application on the PC.

Any post-registration correspondence is now added to the BOPs archive, no matter when the application was completed.

1979 Act Registration Manuals

L47 Archiving