Skip to content
Law Society of Scotland
Search
Find a Solicitor
Contact us
About us
Sign in
Search
Find a Solicitor
Contact us
About us
Sign in
  • For members

    • For members

    • CPD & Training

    • Membership and fees

    • Rules and guidance

    • Regulation and compliance

    • Journal

    • Business support

    • Career growth

    • Member benefits

    • Professional support

    • Lawscot Wellbeing

    • Lawscot Sustainability

  • News and events

    • News and events

    • Law Society news

    • Blogs & opinions

    • CPD & Training

    • Events

  • Qualifying and education

    • Qualifying and education

    • Qualifying as a Scottish solicitor

    • Career support and advice

    • Our work with schools

    • Lawscot Foundation

    • Funding your education

    • Social mobility

  • Research and policy

    • Research and policy

    • Research

    • Influencing the law and policy

    • Equality and diversity

    • Our international work

    • Legal Services Review

    • Meet the Policy team

  • For the public

    • For the public

    • What solicitors can do for you

    • Making a complaint

    • Client protection

    • Find a Solicitor

    • Frequently asked questions

    • Your Scottish solicitor

  • About us

    • About us

    • Contact us

    • Who we are

    • Our strategy, reports and plans

    • Help and advice

    • Our standards

    • Work with us

    • Our logo and branding

    • Equality and diversity

  1. Home
  2. News and events
  3. Blogs & opinions
  4. Letter: registration frustrations

Letter: registration frustrations

3rd May 2017 | property (non-commercial)

I suspect the article by Donald Reid (Journal, March 2017, 33) may have evoked some response if solicitors are as frustrated as myself at the deterioration in the land registration system.

Two aspects are of particular concern to me.

The first arises from the variation from time to time of the Ordnance Survey Map. While the Land Register bears to be based on this map, it does not appear to take account of it being a fluctuating map. I have experienced difficulties where clients have found that the boundaries on the Ordnance map have moved but no change has been made to their title plans, and nothing has changed on the ground. This has seen a neighbour suddenly being shown as owning part of another’s property, I have known this to be a material and significant portion. The Keeper's response is that the title plan is unvariable, but this seems unsatisfactory when the information on what it is drawn can fluctuate. It is particularly unsatisfactory that a client can find themselves deprived of their property without even any intimation. It is also unsatisfactory that an apparently good title can be adjusted without any reference to the relevant interested parties.

The second aspect suggests that Registers are developing a less rather than a more practical system. I submitted a disposition as a first registration with a plan comprising six A3 sheets. This was accepted and registered. However, the land certificate issued has within it the plan on 135 A4 sheets. Concerned that this created practical difficulties in comparing the plan with the original disposition plan, I raised the matter with Registers, to be advised that “the processing does a calculation and decides if it is feasible or not to create an A0 version. In this case it did not. An A0 plan can be created by our GIS Team as a bespoke service similar to the service mentioned for shape files”.

I find it perplexing that the PAS can produce plans on A3 sheets which we can work with, even if they require to be spread across a floor, but the land certificates are produced in a less intelligible form.

In both these instances what is particularly disappointing is that Registers do not appear to recognise my concerns and we appear to be stuck with a system as it stands without any prospect of improvement.

Iain McDonald, Gillespie Gifford & Brown, Dumfries

 

Add To Favorites
Law Society of Scotland
Atria One, 144 Morrison Street
Edinburgh
EH3 8EX
If you’re looking for a solicitor, visit FindaSolicitor.scot
T: +44(0) 131 226 7411
E: lawscot@lawscot.org.uk
About us
  • Contact us
  • Who we are
  • Strategy reports plans
  • Help and advice
  • Our standards
  • Work with us
Useful links
  • Find a Solicitor
  • Sign in
  • CPD & Training
  • Rules and guidance
  • Website terms and conditions
Law Society of Scotland | © 2025
Made by Gecko Agency Limited