Letter: RoS wants to engage

I was pleased to see David Adie’s letter in the September edition of the Journal. The public consultation on the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 started on Monday 16 September and will run until 9 December 2013. We encourage all those with an interest in land registration to take part and we are putting in place as much information as possible to allow solicitors to get themselves informed about what the changes will be and what actions are required. These are likely to be extensive and certainly the biggest changes for a generation.

Advance notices, the realignment of registration law with property law, the potential for e-missives and the new cadastral map, are but a few of the new innovations that will change the mechanics of conveyancing and registration. Those changes and others will remove the anomalies that have arisen on occasion under the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 and will better serve and protect the conveyancing public.

We recognise the need for engagement with the legal profession over the coming months and our new section of the RoS website will be a key part of that: www.ros.gov.uk/2012act. There will of course be much face-to-face engagement through workshops and seminars, and we would encourage solicitors and other legal professionals to attend these. At a more formal level we are also engaging with the Law Society’s Property Law Committee; for the new provisions will have an impact on letters of obligation, missives, pre-registration reports and the interaction solicitors have between themselves and with RoS.

This is an exciting time for all involved in conveyancing; 2014 will see the introduction of the 2012 Act provisions and this will be followed in April 2015 with the addition of the new Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (which RoS will be collecting). We will continue to work closely with the profession and the Property Law Committee over this period in order to provide you with the information you need on the key changes.