Registration Requirements

Prior to the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995, (‘the 1995 Act’), the Keeper had certain leeway to record a deed which contained a non-fatal informality of execution, for example, unauthenticated alterations. The terms of the 1995 Act now preclude the Keeper from accepting for registering any document which is merely subscribed. In the Register of Deeds and Probative Writs in the Books of Council and Session and Sheriff Court Books, the general rule laid down by section 6 of the 1995 Act is that a document is only registrable if it is self-evidencing, i.e. in the case of a document granted by an individual, subscribed by the granter and attested by one witness. If the document is patently not self-evidencing in some way, the Keeper has no power to accept it.

As noted above, under the 1995 Act deeds can only be registered that are self-evidencing. This means that where a document bears to be subscribed by the granter and a witness and states in the testing clause the name and address of the witness and where there is no contradiction in the document, then the deed is self-evidencing (or self-proving). The authenticity of the granter’s subscription and of the content of the deed requires no further corroborative evidence to establish its terms and formality of execution. See Authentication of Registrable Deeds and Requirements of Writing, which sets out the Keeper’s viewpoint on the operation of the 1995 Act. This applies not only to the Register of Deeds and Probative Writs in the Books of Council and Session, but also to other registers under the Keeper’s control.