Getting ready for the "designated day"

We now know that the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 will come fully into force on 8 December 2014. There is a lot of guidance and information to come from the Registers between now and then, which will help the profession get up to speed on changes in registration practice and registration law. Practitioners are starting to turn their minds to consideration of the changes to conveyancing practice and procedure that will be needed to cater for these changes, and that includes wording in missives and other property documents.

The Property Standardisation Group has, at the request of the Law Society of Scotland’s Property Law Committee, agreed to prepare suitable wording for changes that are required to offers, and is working on this now, with a view to producing wording within the next few weeks.

One of the main changes to practice is the introduction of advance notices: a new clause dealing with who does what, and the timing of advance notice applications in the transaction, will be required for missives. Keeper’s requisitions will, to all intents and purposes, be a thing of the past, and so the familiar “Keeper’s requisitions” clause will require to be redrawn. And once we know what sort of searches are going to be available, the necessary changes will be made to the wording, although it is not anticipated that the purpose, content and timing of searches will change.

Much of the change to conveyancing practice that the Act will bring about does not necessarily need new wording, but will require changes to practice, some minor and some more significant. The PSG plans to update the guidance that accompanies its offers with additional commentary on some of the effects of the 2012 Act, although, while we can anticipate how some of this will work in practice, inevitably there will be some aspects that will evolve over time and the PSG guidance will move to reflect this.

The PSG is joined on this project by Catherine Reilly of Brodies, and Donald Reid of Mitchells Roberton. Donald Reid is a member of the Property Law Committee, and has in the past had some involvement in the drafting of residential standard missives. His involvement will address particularly the adaptability of the wording for both residential and commercial transactions.