Initiatives to improve customer service

Legal Issues

Abolition of the Feudal System and the Title Conditions Bill

The introduction of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament brings the abolition of the feudal system a step closer.  This is because the legislation will set the “appointed day” for abolition to take place and on the same day the new regime for burdens and servitudes proposed by the Title Conditions Bill is expected to come into force.

Although it is still not certain when the appointed day will be, we are getting to work on our policies and practices for the post-feudal era.  We need to revise our first registration and transfer of part procedures to ensure that title sheets created after the appointed day do not contain material which has been rendered extinct or redundant by feudal abolition.  Come the appointed day many existing title sheets will become inaccurate.  For example, pure superiority interests will cease to exist and those burdens enforceable only by a superior will be extinguished.  We are also closely monitoring the Title Conditions Bill’s passage through Parliament and are conscious that its current terms affect some implied enforcement right burdens in title sheets.  We are investigating how best to clear the register of spent material.

In terms of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000, in advance of the appointed day there will be a period within which it will be competent to record or register notices re-allotting superiors’ burden enforcement rights onto alternative dominant tenements and a number of other saving notices.  The beginning of this period may be as close as a year from the present and we are developing our procedures for dealing with the new types of notices.

Contact: sarah.duncan@ros.gov.uk (0131 659 6111 Ext.5120)

Udal Tenure

Ian Davis (Head of Legal Services) and Martin Corbett (Legal Adviser) are to visit Orkney and Shetland this month to meet with members of the respective faculties. This will enable us to glean a clearer understanding of the impact that Land Registration will have on udal tenure.  The issues aired will feed into registration policy and practice and inform the content of the seminars planned for February (see below).

Contact: ian.davis@ros.gov.uk (0131 479 3612) Automated Registration of Title to Land (ARTL)

Automated Registration of Title to Land (ARTL)

Responses to the post-pilot consultation with the profession and other interested parties confirm that there is strong support for the principle of electronic registration of dealings with whole.  The consultation responses received have been very useful in identifying the practice issues to be considered.  We hosted a meeting in July for representatives of the Law Society of Scotland and of the Council of Mortgage Lenders to discuss a number of issues. The ARTL team is in ongoing dialogue with a number of parties representing the legal profession’s stakeholder interest.  These include the Society’s Conveyancing and Professional Practice Committees, the Chief Accountant, the Convenor of the Guarantee Fund Committee and the Master Policy brokers and underwriters.

Professors Stewart Brymer (Dundee University), George Gretton (Edinburgh University), Roddy Paisley (Aberdeen University) and Robert Rennie (Glasgow University) have agreed to deliver an expert opinion on the legal and practice issues associated with a system of electronic registration.  It is expected that a submission to Scottish Executive Justice Department will be made in due course in respect of the legislative changes required to enable introduction of an electronic, paperless registration system.

Work on digital signatures and Public Key Encryption also continues.  In particular, we are in consultation with the Law Society of Scotland’s Director of IT to explore the possibilities arising from the Society’s digital signature initiative.

Contact: andy.martin@ros.gov.uk (0131 479 3619)

Business Focus

Land Register Intake

12-15% of Land Register applications are returned at the initial registration stage. On this year’s projections up to 30,000 applications could be affected.  This results in delays in establishing a date-of-registration and increases administrative costs to both the Agency and the profession.

The majority of applications are returned for reasons that are best described as avoidable clerical errors:

• forms not signed and dated
• questions not answered
• cheques not completed
• incorrect fee tendered.

In an attempt to improve service levels and reduce the number of returned applications, we will be introducing the following initiatives over the next year:

DX/LP Box Numbers

DX and LP boxes held by the Agency have been rationalised effective from 16 September 2002.  Details were intimated to the profession by mail shot and these are also shown on our web site (www.ros.gov.uk). A re-directing service will remain in force until March 2003.  Reducing the number of boxes will ensure that mail is directed to its proper destination within the Agency quickly and cost effectively.<>

eFORMS ONLINE

A new Internet-based version of eFORMS has already been launched. Amongst its many features are an automatic fee calculation facility and a validation check on the completion of various fields and questions in registration forms.<>

Intake Envelopes

Clearly identifiable intake envelopes are soon to be provided free-of-charge.  The aim is to reduce the number of returns, improve the security of documentation received by the Agency and increase the efficiency of workflow processes within the Intake Sections.  The envelopes will contain an application check list.  They will also contain an information-box that, when completed, will enable incoming mail to be sorted without the need to open the application.<>

Electronic Payment Methods

We will pursue the possibility of widening our payment methods to include direct debit and draw-down accounts and anticipate being in a position to pilot these enhancements early next year. These methods of payments will complement the traditional cheque, which will continue to be accepted, the objective being to present a wider range of choice that meets the needs of individual firms.

Each initiative will play its part in improving customer service and reducing the number of applications returned at intake stage. When combined they will deliver an even more positive outcome.  We will, over the coming months, keep you informed of progress on Land Register intake returns and on each of these initiatives.

Contact: alan.malone@ros.gov.uk (0131 200 3941).

Land Register Extension - Northern, Highland and Island Counties

The Land Register extension programme is now nearing completion, with the final extension to the counties of Banff, Moray, Ross and Cromarty, Caithness, Sutherland, Orkney and Zetland scheduled to go live on 1 April 2003.

The earlier extensions of the Land Register to Inverness, Nairn, Argyll and Bute have given us experience of rural issues such as the 1/10,000 scale of map-based information, crofting, water boundaries and fishing rights.  We are planning a smooth transition for the remaining Northern, Highland and Island counties.  A key element of the Land Registration extension programme has been regular seminars that pave the way for effective two-way communication in advance of each extension.  We have been in contact with the local faculties and early plans are for land registration seminars to be organised in Orkney, Shetland and Wick.  These are scheduled for February next year.  They will cover the land registration process, the completion of reports and applications for registration, key elements of our policies and practices, and they will provide an opportunity to meet Agency staff who will be responsible for land registration in these areas.

Contact: andy.smith@ros.gov.uk (0131 479 3658).

Practice matters

Title Sheet - Creditors Names and Designations
We try to ensure consistency in terms of the presentation of information entered into the Title Sheet.  An ongoing problem for us is that styles of securities used by solicitors are not always the most current available and designations for the same creditor are often at variance from deed to deed.  This in itself does not invalidate the deed, but it can cause difficulties for us as we select the relevant creditor information from a standardised picklist.  To ensure consistency, our policy, irrespective of what is contained in the deed or the application form, will be to insert the most comprehensive designation available pertaining to the creditor in relation to the address in question.  For the avoidance of doubt, creditor names will always reflect the deed, but the designation entered into the Title Sheet, while not at odds, may contain additional information not noted on the deed or form.  In cases where the appended designation is completely different from that held by us, the information in the deed and form will be reflected in the Title Sheet.

Contact: margaret.archer@ros.gov.uk (0131 479 3609)