Lecture 7 – Property Registers
Register of Sasines
Set up in 1617 as Register of Sasines.
Requirements before deed could be recorded – involved various requirements, firstly that
there was a written deed which was signed and witnessed. It had to contain sufficient and
appropriate identification of the property in question and it had to have a warrant for
registration which was to say a couple lines saying to the keeper of the register asking the
keeper to register or to record this deed in the appropriate part of the register. That was the
warrant for registrar was signed by the solicitor.
The register of sasines was merely a record of the existence of a deed in your favour. Whereas
if you register a document in your favour at the land register, your title to the heritable
property that described the deed, your title to that is much less susceptible to challenge. One
of the bug problems in relation to the register of sasines was that if title that you acquired was
flawed, then purely recording it in the sasines register did not cure any flaw in your title and
so If someone with a better title came along then you could find yourself deprived of the
property owned.
Also, should have a stamp on it to indicate that what was formerly called ‘stamp duty’ has
been paid. This was a tax worked out as a percentage pf the price of the property being
transferred paid by the purchaser - the person in whose favour the deed is being recorded.
Proper name is Land and buildings transaction tax. Same thing, a tax that you have to pay if
you registered property in the property register.
Assuming that you have complied with the requirements, you would then send the deed to
be recorded in the property register. These days might be Meadowbank house. The keeper
will then decide whether the deed is in appropriate form and assuming it is, will take it to be
recorded.
Macdonald v Keeper of the General Register of Sasines 1914 SC 854
The pursuers here contended that the keeper had no discretion in terms of the deeds that
were recorded in the Sasines register. In other words, if it was presented to the keeper in
appropriate form, then the keeper had to record it. Summary of the judgement was no he
doesn’t. The keeper of the register of sasines does have a discretion as to whether to record
a document presented at the register.
Presentation for registration
Problems with Sasines System
- Identification of the subject involved. Sometimes a description is given in the deeds
which are not that precise and there is no system for comparing one title against a
neighbouring title. It is possible for two deeds to be recorded in the sasines register
which describe areas of land which overlap.
- Conditions of tenure – what restrictions there were of ownership in terms of burdens
of Servitudes that burden of the property. Sometimes it would not appear in particular
cases dealing with servitudes.
- Heritable Securities
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