This is the registration manual for 1979 casework.
Do not under any circumstances use the information here when settling 2012 casework. This resource has been archived and is no longer being updated. As such, it contains many broken links. Much of the information contained here is obsolete or superseded.
P8.1 IDENTIFICATION OF SUBJECTS ON THE ORDNANCE MAP (IDENT)
8.1.2 Section 19 Agreement
(See Legal Manual part 46, Section 19 Agreements)
Occasionally, agents applying for first registration where a section 19 Agreement has been drawn up and lodged with the application, omit to ask specifically for the agreement also to be recorded in the Sasine Register. In order to ensure that the joint recording procedure is effected in such cases as quickly as possible, a special check for section 19 agreements must be made. If a form L14 (Notification of Joint Recording) is enclosed and completed, then recording has been effected.
Otherwise, the case must be referred directly to Legal for immediate action.
8.1.3 Confirmation of Date of Registration
(See Legal manual part 9.12 Standard Securities by Limited Companies)
A security by a registered company must be registered in the Register of Charges kept by the Registrar of Companies within 21 days of its date of registration in the Land Register. If the security is subsequently withdrawn from the Land Register, after its registration in the Register of Charges, the registration in the Register of Charges is ineffective and has to be cancelled. A fresh registration in the Register of Charges then has to be made after the security is re-presented in the Land Register. To prevent such problems, the Keeper has agreed to confirm the date of registration in the Land Register if a company security is involved and a confirmation is requested. In paragraph 5.48 of the Registration of Title Practice Book (second edition) agents are advised that the applicant should not request confirmation in a separate letter, but instead, at the top of the first page of the application Form 2, the applicant should write 'confirmation is required'. The Keeper has undertaken to provide this service for the benefit of the legal profession but, as he has no duty to provide such a service, he will accept no liability for failure to do so.
Confirmation cases must be prioritised and dealt with immediately. The agent needs to know that the application will not be rejected. When the security accompanies a title, which will usually be the case, it will be necessary to check that the borrower's title is also acceptable.
Where this is the case the Confirmations Officer will pass the application to a Plans Officer to ensure that the subjects can be fully identified on the Ordnance Survey map. Therefore the Plans officer must check the application and confirm the application contains sufficient information to allow the Title Plans to be prepared.
For that reason the following must be checked: -
Is there a full bounding description/plan?
Can it be reconciled with the Ordnance map?
If not has the agent completed question 2 on the Form 1 or taken the appropriate corrective action that will allow the Title Plan to be prepared?
Are there any problems with existing registrations?
Where no problems are envisaged with the preparation of the Title Plan the following note should be supplied to the legal settler: -
"The subjects are identifiable with the Ordnance Survey map"
Note To save on duplication of work at a later stage, consideration should be given to completing the Plans element of the application at this point.
In the event of a problem being identified which would prevent the Title Plan being prepared and which could subsequently lead to the application being cancelled the Plans Officer should note this to the Confirmations Officer along with a concise explanation as to the problem encountered. The application should then be returned to the Confirmation Officer.
8.1.4 Settle Procedure
For each application: -
Check the Form 4 against the Deeds lodged.
Check that the subjects have been properly Idented. Even though the location of the subjects has been successful, check that the deed plan, particularly if it is a DIR plan, fully meets the necessary criteria, e.g. that it is not a 'floating shape'. Remember that Deed-plans must be looked at critically and must fit the necessary criteria to be accepted, i.e. must be identifiable on the Ordnance Map and capable of plotting. Remember also the EEC 'Units of Measurements Directive' which came into force on 1 October 1995: DIRs that contain a new description that uses imperial measurements will contravene the Directive and may be rejected. The directive does not apply to acres. Refer when in doubt.
Check that no part of the subjects sought for registration is registered under the same interest.
Check that the correct forms have been lodged. If an incorrect form is found, and there is no written notification from Legal Staff that it has been accepted, refer back to them. This applies, in the main, regarding applications lodged as First Registrations, but are found to comprise land already registered, and should therefore be a transfer of part or whole, or a mixture of both. Also, check for any applications where documents or letters lodged reveal the intention that the land should be added to a Scheme Title. In addition to the Form 1, a Form 18 should also be lodged. If not, refer to INTAKE with a Form 18 so that the appropriate action can be taken.
If there is no Form 1 or the form is not signed, the agent should be contacted by telephone and in writing, and the casebag placed in Stand-over for 30 days.
Any deeds referred to for extent or burdens that are not lodged (including those referred to as exceptions) are requisitioned after checking the Common Deeds Index where appropriate. Even if the case, either because of value or complexity, is to be referred to a senior officer all relevant deeds should be requisitioned first. Obviously if there is doubt as to whether or not certain deeds are required, a senior officer should be consulted, being one at the grade relevant to the circumstances.
It cannot be stressed enough that the main task of the Plans Settler is to check Title to the land. Investigation should not necessarily stop at a specific deed referred to in the DIR. If the referred deed in turn refers to an earlier deed or deeds for extent, those deeds must also be examined.
Even if the application is to be settled/considered at a higher grade, normal investigation should be completed. However, should it be obvious that the abstracting would be very complicated and time consuming, it would be prudent to leave that part of the procedure to the senior officer. The said senior officer will be responsible, on settling the case, for the accuracy of the abstracting, and whilst a cursory check of abstracting in a straight forward case may be acceptable, a more thorough check would be advisable regarding a complicated application. Therefore such a duplication of work is unsatisfactory
All non-research area / prior registration applications proceed thus:
(a) Check the form 10 for prescriptive title information. If the form 10 has not been lodged then:
(b) Check and note any relevant correspondence; also check the Form 1 for relevant notes which may have a bearing on the course of the case. For example, there may be: -
(c) Examine the Form 1 and Form 10 for:
(d) Examine the Deed Inducing Registration (DIR) for:
(e) Check for any Section 19 Agreement
(f) Note all relevant information taken from Form 1, Form 10 and DIR in preparation for the Common Deeds Index check.
(g) All new developments cases will be referred to P32 officer.
Some applications even though not containing any specific irregularities, require immediate referral. These include: -
(a) Registration of purely subsoil and/or airspace.
(b) Registration which specifically refer to, or include only mines and minerals.
(c) Registration referring to roof space (included or excluded). Not to be confused with attic rooms.
(d) Registration of a Barony Title.
(e) Registration of a Riparian Interest (riverbed, burn or inland Loch).
8.1.5 Common Deeds Index (CDI)
See the following sections also -
Section 8.11.2.1.1. - Abstracting-establishing the extent of the subjects in Prior Deeds
Section 17 - Common Deeds on the LRS
Section 20 Decision Trees - Abstracting Guidance for Burdens Deeds and Abstracting Guidance for Prescriptive Title Deeds.
In a fairly high proportion of cases the deeds which require to be submitted in support of an application will include deeds, which are common to the subjects being registered and to other subjects.
Section 5.13 Registration of Title Practise Book (Second Edition) informs the legal profession on the Keeper's current practices in examining common deeds and reads as follows: -
5.13. Before any county becomes an operational area, a team of the Keeper's staff commence new area preparation by searching the Registers of Sasines for that county to identify areas of land (research areas) which have been, or are likely to be, divided into several units of property and which may be subject to common burdens. Such areas generally comprise a building development or a feuing estate.
When compiling research areas the common burdens deed will be examined. So on first registration of any properties affected, the Keeper will not normally require to examine any deeds prior to the foundation deed. There are occasions however, where the Keeper will require, on the first registration, to examine the prior titles to an area of ground notwithstanding the fact that it fulfils the criteria of a research area:
The area of land may have been developed subsequent to the initial search to identify potential research areas in that county
An area's potential, as a research area may not have been realised at the initial search stage.
Deed plans may not be available or as plans are not colour copied, obtainable only in black and white. Prior to the commencement of copying writs photography in 1934, plans were not copied unless a duplicate plan was ingiven. Even then the plans were still not copied if they exceeded certain dimensions. Although attempts are made by the new area preparation staff to obtain the original deed plan in those circumstances it is not always possible to trace the original deed.
In practice it is suggested that a solicitor, when dealing with a property which forms part of a development comprising ten or more units, should process on the basis that the Keeper will not require to see the common titles or common burdens writs. These common writs should, however, still be listed on the Form 4
When dealing with a property which does not form part of a development comprising ten or more units the common title must be submitted to the Keeper on the first registration. Once examined, the Keeper will stamp such deeds 'Examined'. Solicitors should note that only the original deed, as opposed to National Archives of Scotland (formerly Scottish Record Office) copies or simple photocopies, will be so stamped. Any common deed stamped in such a way need not be re-submitted in connection with any other application for first registration. Such deeds must, however, be listed on the Form 4
There are a number of reasons for this instruction. Common deeds may not always be readily available to the applicant for submission with his/her application and it is undesirable that submission of the application should become delayed until those deeds become available.
The unnecessary holding by the Agency, of common deeds which are required by a purchaser's solicitor in connection with another transaction is liable to cause unacceptable delays in the property market.
As common deeds are in heavy demand in property transactions, it is important to avoid the need for repeated requests to the agents to see the same common deed every time an application for registration of part of the area affected by the common deed is received. Therefore it is important the Agency extracts as much information from the deeds as it can to avoid the necessity of repeated requests. An index of common deeds and details of their contents is therefore maintained in respect of each operational area for Registration of Title. The object of the index is to identify at an early stage in the registration of an application whether a common deed, in respect of the Application has, in fact been submitted or obtained in respect of an earlier Application and, if so what information is available as to the contents of the deed and where it can be found. In this way unnecessary requests for the same deed and unnecessary duplication of editing the deeds can be avoided and the settling process can be speeded up.
Therefore it is imperative that everyone actively uses and updates the Common Deeds Index
The index is split into two different types of information. One is text based and is held on the LRS, the other is map based and is held on the DMS and is sometimes referred to as the Common Deeds Index Sheets (derived from the paper map sheets) or CDIS to distinguish it from the text part of the CDI held on the LRS. Together they hold the details of any common deeds that have previously been submitted to the Agency in relation to the applications for registration or obtained in the preparation of Research Team Files.
The index contains numerous details of the common deeds if these are available for instance: