Requirements of Writing for the Register of Deeds and Probative Writs in the Books of Council and Session
The most common types of deeds registered by the Keeper in the Books of Council & Session are Wills, Leases, and Minutes of Agreement. However, the Keeper can register any probative deed - that is a deed which has been subscribed by the granter and witnessed. Essentially the deed will need to conform to the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995 which came into force on 1st August of that year.
The Keeper is only checking that the deed conforms to registration requirements, i.e. it is an original deed, it is probative, and conforms to the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995. Please note that the actual content of the deed is not checked by the Keeper. The only exception is that the Keeper will check that a deed is not defamatory or libellous. For further information on the submission of defamatory deeds to the Books of Council and Session see the CAJR Team Leader.
Power of attorney
A power of attorney is a document by which one legal persona (be it a natural person, a company or any other entity with separate legal personality) empowers a second legal persona to carry out some action on his, her or its behalf. The person or other entity so appointed (i.e. the grantee of the power of attorney) is called the attorney; the granter of the power of attorney is referred to as ‘the principal.’ See Legal Capacity for more details.
Legal Writings (Counterparts and Delivery) (Scotland) Act 2015 - execution in counterpart
The Keeper will process applications for recording of documents executed in counterpart in line with existing practice in the Books of Council & Session. The deeds will be checked by staff in the Chancery and Judicial Registers to ensure that they are in self-proving form, but staff will not check multiple counterparts in order to make sure that they are duplicate and interchangeable. The Keeper takes the view that it is an applicant's responsibility to ensure that documents executed in counterpart are indeed duplicate and interchangeable. Where a single document is submitted, collated with only the executed page(s) from the other counterpart(s), the Keeper will accept the application without seeking additional confirmation as to the content of the other counterparts. See the section in the 2012 Act manual for more details - Legal Writings (Counterparts and Delivery) (Scotland) Act 2015.