Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1924

Title and introductory text

Conveyancing (Scotland) Act 1924 1924 c.27 An Act to amend the law of conveyancing in Scotland. [1st August 1924]

1 †Short title, extent and commencement of Act.

(1) This Act may be cited as the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1924. (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) This Act shall apply to Scotland only.

2 Interpretation clause.

The words and expressions after mentioned or referred to shall have the several meanings hereby assigned to them, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction (that is to say):— (1) The words and expressions used in this Act and in the schedules annexed to this Act which are interpreted in the Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1868, and the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, shall have the meaning assigned thereto respectively by these Acts, subject to the following qualifications:— (a) “Land” or “lands” shall not include “securities”; (b) “Heritable securities” and “securities” shall include ... securities over a lease, but shall not include securities constituted by ex facie absolute disposition; and (c) “Conveyance” and “deed” and “instrument” shall include all deeds, notices of title, decrees, petitions and writings specified in this Act; and these words and the words “writing,” “writ” and “decree” occurring in the said Acts and in this Act shall each mean and include an extract or office copy of such “conveyance,” “deed,” “instrument,” “writing,” “writ” or “decree”: (2) “Extract” and “office copy” shall each mean and include a duly authenticated extract of any act, decree or warrant of the Lords of Council and Session, or any inferior court, or a duly authenticated extract or office copy from the Register of the Great Seal, or from the Books of Council and Session, or of any sheriff court, or of any other public authentic register of probative writs, or from the appropriate Register of Sasines, of any conveyance, deed, instrument, writing, writ or decree, and shall also mean and include a probate of the will or testamentary settlement of a person deceased issued by any court of probate in England or Northern Ireland, or in any part of His Majesty’s Dominions, or an exemplification of such probate: (3) “Deduction of title” shall mean the specification in a deed, decree or instrument of the writ or series of writs (without narration of the contents thereof) by which the person granting such deed or in whose favour such decree is conceived or by whom such instrument is expede, has acquired right from the person from whom such title is deduced, and such specification shall be a compliance with an instruction to “deduce” a title in terms of this Act: (4) “Adjudication” shall include adjudication whether for debt or in implement, and constitution and adjudication whether for debt or in implement, and declarator and adjudication: (5) “Lease” shall mean a lease which has been registered or is registrable in the Land Register of Scotland or in the Register of Sasines in virtue of the Registration of Leases (Scotland) Act, 1857, and Acts amending the same: (6) “Law agent” shall mean and include writers to the signet, solicitors in the supreme courts, procurators in any sheriff court, and every person entitled to practise as an agent in a court of law in Scotland: (7) “Agent” in the Schedules hereto shall mean law agent or notary public: (8) “Register of Sasines” shall mean and include the General Register of Sasines, the Particular Registers of Sasines now discontinued, the Register of Sasines kept for any royal or other burgh and the Register of Booking in the burgh of Paisley.

3 Disposition, &c. by person uninfeft.

If a disposition of land, or an assignation, discharge or deed of restriction of a heritable security duly recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines, or of any part of such security, is granted by a person having a right to such land, or to such heritable security, or such part thereof, but whose title to such land or heritable security or part thereof has not been completed by being so recorded, and who in such disposition or other deed deduces his title from the person ... having the last recorded title, in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Form No. 1 of Schedule A to this Act in the case of land, or in or as nearly as may be in such manner as was (immediately before the repeal of the note) prescribed in Note 2 to Schedule K to this Act in the case of a heritable security, then on such disposition or other deed being recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines, the title of the grantee thereof shall be completed.

4 Completion of title: General Register of Sasines

Any person having right either to land or to a heritable security may, if the last recorded title to the right is recorded in the General Register of Sasines, complete his title in manner following:— (1) A person having such right to land may complete a title thereto by recording in the appropriate Register of Sasines a notice of title in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Form No. 1 of Schedule B to this Act, in which notice of title such person shall deduce his title from the person having the last recorded title: (2) When the writ forming the immediate connection with the person having the last recorded title is an unrecorded conveyance, deed or decree, the recording of which in the appropriate Register of Sasines on behalf of the person in whose favour the same is conceived would have completed his title ..., the person having such right to the land therein contained or part thereof may complete a title thereto by recording in the appropriate Register of Sasines such conveyance, deed or decree, docqueted in manner prescribed in Note 7 to Schedule B to this Act, along with a notice of title in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Form No.2 of that Schedule, in which notice of title such person shall deduce his title from the person in whose favour such conveyance, deed or decree is conceived: (3) A person having such right to a heritable security, or part thereof, which appears in the appropriate Register of Sasines as a burden on land, may complete a title thereto by recording in the appropriate Register of Sasines a notice of title in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Form No. 3 of Schedule B to this Act..., in which notice of title such person shall deduce his title from the person having the last recorded title to the heritable security: (4) A person having such right to an unrecorded heritable security or part thereof contained in a deed the recording of which in the appropriate Register of Sasines on behalf of the original creditor would have completed his title thereto and to the land out of which it is payable, or either of them, but which has not been so recorded, may complete a title thereto by recording in the appropriate Register of Sasines such heritable security, which shall be docqueted in manner prescribed in Note 7 to Schedule B to this Act, along with a notice of title in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Form No. 5 of that Schedule..., in which notice of title such person shall deduce his title from the original creditor in such heritable security. ...

4A Completion of title: Land Register

(1) Any person having right either to land or to a heritable security may complete title by registration in the Land Register of a notice of title in or as nearly as may be in the terms of the form in schedule BA to this Act. (2) Subsection (1) is subject to paragraphs 3 and 4 of schedule 1A to the Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012.

4B Further provision as regards completion of title

(1) If it is competent to register a disposition or assignation in the Land Register, it is not competent for the disponee or assignee to complete title in the manner provided for in section 4 of this Act. (2) In this section and in section 4A of this Act, “Land Register” means the Land Register of Scotland.

5 Deduction of title.

(1) In a deduction of title in terms of this Act it shall be competent to specify as a title or as a midcouple or link of title, any statute, conveyance, deed, instrument, decree or other writing whereby a right to land or to any real right in land is vested in or transmitted to any person, or in virtue of which a notarial instrument could (before the day appointed by order made under section 71 of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5)) be expede, or which could be used as a midcouple or link of title in expeding such instrument, or any minute of a meeting at which any person is appointed to any place or office, if such appointment involves a right to land or to a real right in land; and any copy of or excerpt from such minute of meeting certified as correct by the Chairman of such meeting or other person duly authorised to sign such minute or to give extracts therefrom, or by any law agent or notary public shall be prima facie evidence of the terms of such minute of meeting. (2) (a) When the holder of a heritable security . . . has died, whether ... with or without a recorded title, and whether testate or intestate, any confirmation in favour of an executor of such deceased which includes such security shall of itself be a valid title to the debt thereby secured, and shall also be a warrant for such executor dealing with such debt and also with such security in terms of the third section of this Act, and also for completing a title to such security in terms of the fourth section of this Act. (b) For the purposes of this subsection, “confirmation” shall include any probate or letters of administration or other grant of representation to movable or personal estate of a deceased person issued— (a) by any court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland and noting his domicile in England and Wales or in Northern Ireland, as the case may be, or (b) by any court outwith the United Kingdom and sealed in Scotland under section 2 of the Colonial Probates Act 1892 and the confirmation thereby implied shall operate in favour of the person or the persons or the survivors or survivor of them to whom such probate, letters of administration or other grant of representation were granted; and “executor” shall include such person or persons; and such implied confirmation shall be deemed to include all heritable securities which belonged to the deceased . . . (3) (a) It shall be competent in any warrant, interlocutor or decree of court conferring a right to land or to a heritable security, or granting authority to complete a title thereto, and also in the application upon which such warrant, interlocutor or decree proceeds, to insert a deduction of title from the person ... holding the last recorded title, and an extract of such warrant, interlocutor or decree shall be equivalent to a disposition of land or an assignation of a heritable security granted in terms of section three of this Act and on being recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines shall have the same force and effect as such a disposition or assignation duly recorded in such register. (b) Section twenty-four of the Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1868, and section forty-four of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, are hereby amended in accordance with the provisions of this subsection, and the procedure prescribed in section forty four of the said Act of 1874, as hereby amended, shall be competent irrespective of whether the trust title has or has not been duly completed and recorded, and shall be applicable to all judicial factors within the meaning of section three of the said Act of 1868, and both of such sections hereby amended shall apply to heritable securities, and such heritable security may be referred to in any warrant, interlocutor of decree, or in any application upon which the same proceeds, in the manner prescribed in the forms relative thereto referred to in section four of this Act.

6 Notice of title equivalent to notarial instrument.

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8 Description by reference and short reference to deed bearing more than one date.

(1) It shall be no objection to a description by reference to a particular description of land in accordance with section sixty-one of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, that the description referred to contains a description by reference of a larger piece of land of which the land particularly described forms part, and Schedule O annexed to the said Act of 1874 is hereby repealed and Schedule D to this Act is substituted therefor: The provisions of this section shall be retrospective. (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) In specifying any writ recorded in any Register of Sasines, it shall be competent for the better identification of such writ, to state the number of the volume or book of the register in which, and of the folio on which, the same has been recorded; but it shall be no objection to the specification of any writ that such volume or book and folio or either of them are not stated or are misstated, provided that such specification is sufficient for the identification of such writ. (4) Where any deed, instrument, or writing bearing more than one date is for any purpose specified or referred to in any other deed, instrument, or writing, it shall be no objection to such specification or reference that only the first date is given with the addition of the words “and subsequent date” (or “dates”). (5) Note 1 to Schedule D to this Act shall apply to a reference competently made to any deed for reservations, real burdens, conditions, provisions, limitations, obligations and stipulations affecting lands and to the form of such reference given in schedule 1 to the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 (asp 9).

9 Amendment of law as to reference to conditions of title.

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10 Warrants of registration.

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11 Consolidation of superiority and property.

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12 Abolition and commutation of grain, &c. feu-duties.

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13 Allocation of feu-duty.

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14 Abolition of real warrandice.

(1) From and after the commencement of this Act, it shall not be competent to dispone lands in real warrandice of a conveyance of other lands, and such real warrandice shall not arise ex lege from any contract or agreement entered into after the commencement of this Act. (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 Transmission of personal obligation.

(1) The personal obligation contained in any deed or writing whereby any heritable security is constituted shall not transmit in terms of section forty-seven of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, against any person taking the estate by conveyance in the sense of that section dated after the commencement of this Act, unless such conveyance be signed by such person. (2) After the commencement of this Act, summary diligence, in terms of the said section, shall not be competent against any obligant whose obligation is created by succession, gift or bequest, unless in cases in which there shall be an agreement to the transmission of such obligation executed by such obligant. (3) An agreement for transmission of a personal obligation pursuant to the said section may be in terms of Form No. 2 of Schedule A to this Act, or in any other form sufficiently expressing such agreement.

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19 Applicability of forms prescribed by Act.

The forms prescribed by this Act for the completion of the titles to and the conveyance, assignation, discharge or restriction of rights of property ... in land or heritable securities shall respectively be applicable to all other rights in or over land or in or over a heritable security the title to which may according to the present law and practice be competently completed by the recording of such title in the appropriate Register of Sasines.

20 Ratification by married woman.

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21 Terce and courtesy.

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22 Assimilation of law as regards legitim and jus relictæ, &c.

(1) In the case of any person dying after the commencement of this Act, the rules of law which determine what estate belonging to a deceased is subject to claims for legitim shall be applicable in determining what estate belonging to the deceased is subject to the claim for jus relictæ or jus relicti: And the estates of all such persons shall be distributed on the footing that there shall no longer be any distinction between the description of estate subject to claims for legitim and the description of estate subject to claims for jus relictæ and jus relicti. (2) All debts which if due to any person dying after the commencement of this Act would, according to the present law and practice or in terms of this section, be subject to legitim and jus relictæ or jus relicti shall, if due by the deceased or out of his or her estate, form, so far as the estate on which such debts are secured may be insufficient to meet the same, deductions from the deceased’s moveable estate before ascertaining legitim and jus relictæ or jus relicti.

23 Ground-annuals.

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24 Registered leases. Assimilation of forms.

All enabling powers and rights which, by this Act, are conferred upon or implied in favour of a person in right of land or of a security over land... shall, so far as applicable, be held as conferred upon a person who has right to a lease, or to a security over a lease respectively; and the forms prescribed by this Act may be used in connection with the constitution, transmission, restriction and discharge of securities over leases, and the completion of titles to leases and to securities over the same, and to sales thereof under such securities... and the clauses held as implied in any of the forms prescribed by this Act shall, so far as applicable be held as implied when such forms are used in connection with leases and securities over the same: Provided that in applying this Act and relative schedules to leases and securities over the same the following modifications and such other verbal modifications as may be necessary shall be given effect to:— (1) For “lands,” “lands and others” or “subjects” there shall be substituted “lease,” for “conveyance” or “disposition” there shall be substituted “assignation” . . . , for “bond and disposition in security” there shall be substituted “bond and assignation in security,” for “assignation of a bond and disposition in security” there shall be substituted “translation of a bond and assignation in security,” for “dispone” or “convey” there shall be substituted “assign,” for “proprietor” there shall be substituted “lessee,” and for “disponee” there shall be substituted “assignee,” ...: (2) In an assignation of a lease, or in a bond and assignation in security of a lease, or in a notice of title relating to a lease, there may be substituted for a description of the land a reference to such lease in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Schedule J to this Act: (3) In the event of the lease, to which a title is being completed by notice of title under this Act, not having been recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines, it shall be recorded therein along with such notice of title in which the lease shall be referred to in manner prescribed in Note 5 to Schedule J to this Act, and such lease, before being so recorded, shall be docqueted in manner prescribed in Note 7 to Schedule B to this Act, and, on the same being so recorded, it shall have the same force and effect as a recorded title under the Registration of Leases (Scotland) Act, 1857, and Acts amending the same: (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5) A renunciation of a lease in terms of Schedule G to the Registration of Leases (Scotland) Act, 1857, may competently be granted by a person not holding a recorded title to such lease, provided that he shall therein deduce his title from the person holding the last recorded title in manner prescribed in Note 4 to Schedule J to this Act, and on such renunciation being recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines such lease shall be as effectually renounced as if the title of the granter of such renunciation had been completed as at the date of such recording ..., and section thirteen of the said Act of 1857, and Schedule G annexed to that Act, are hereby amended accordingly: (6) Section twenty-four of the Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1868, and section forty-four of the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874, as amended by section five of this Act, shall apply to a lease and to a security over a lease, and in the warrant, interlocutor or decree of Court conferring a right to such lease or security over the same or granting authority to complete title thereto, and also in the application upon which such warrant, interlocutor or decree proceeds, such lease may be referred to in or as nearly as may be in the terms of Schedule J hereto: (7) An adjudger or purchaser of a lease, or an adjudger or assignee of a security over a lease, may complete his title thereto by recording in the appropriate Register of Sasines an extract of the decree of adjudication or of sale (as the case may be) or may use such extract decree as an assignation or one of a series of assignations of an unrecorded lease or of an unrecorded security over a lease, and section ten of the Registration of Leases (Scotland) Act, 1857, is hereby amended accordingly.

25 Form of bond and disposition in security.

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26 Heritable creditors’ remedies for recovery of feu-duties and ground-annuals.

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27 Restriction of agent’s lien.

From and after the commencement of this Act it shall be incompetent for any law agent or notary public acting for the proprietor or creditors or others, whose rights in or over land conveyed in security are postponed to those of the creditor in such heritable security, to acquire over the writs and evidents as against such creditor any right of hypothec, lien or retention after the date of recording such heritable security.

28 Assignation of bond and disposition in security.

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29 Discharge of bond and disposition in security.

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30 Restriction of bond and disposition in security.

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31 Description of lands and deduction of title unnecessary in certain deeds relating to heritable securities.

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32 Redemption of bond and disposition in security. Notice and procedure and evidence of service.

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33 Notice calling up bond and disposition in security.

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34 Service of notice.

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35 Power to dispense with or shorten induciæ.

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36 Advertisement.

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37 Contents of advertisement.

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38 Periods during which, and newspapers in which, advertisement required.

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