Dealing with our older casework

Registers of Scotland are training more skilled staff to handle the increase in complex applications for first registration

15th September 2008 | Registers of Scotland

At RoS we have an obligation to record applications for registration on the day we receive them, since that safeguards rights. We meet this obligation. We recognise that our customers expect us to register their applications speedily and accurately.

Over the last few years volumes of applications, particularly complex applications for first registration or transfer of part, have increased beyond the level of our capability to deal with them as speedily as we would have wished. To address this, we are increasing the number of our staff with the skills and knowledge to deal with such cases.

But building that expertise takes time. We have developed a strategy to ensure that by 2011 there will be no case with us for more than six months without being registered, where it is legally appropriate and within the Keeper’s power to do so.

We are on track to achieve this. But what does this mean for solicitors who have applications for registration already with us?

If your application is for a first registration and was submitted before January 2006 then we will process it by 31 March 2009. If it was submitted after January 2006 then it will be processed at a later date and we will make an announcement on this in our Corporate Plan for 2009-14, due to be published in March 2009.

If your application is for a transfer of part registration you need to know that we are tackling these in the following way. Starting with the oldest applications, we will be completing 25,000 applications this year, 56,000 in 2009-10, and 75,000 in 2010-11. This will mean that by 2011 we will have no transfer of part application older than six months where it is legally appropriate and within the Keeper’s power to complete.

Sheenagh Adams, Managing Director, Registers of Scotland.

www.ros.gov.uku