Voluntary registration uses our standard application form but there are some additional considerations you must comply with for your application to be accepted onto the register.
Use this guide to make sure your voluntary registration application has everything it needs for successful registration.
We recommend voluntary registration applications are carried out by a solicitor, because the process requires a certain level of legal knowledge. However, there is no legal requirement to do so.
As there is no new deed to induce registration in the case of voluntary registration, your application is key to how we make up the title sheet for the property.
Voluntary registration isn't appropriate if you're registering a notice of title or if you are a tenant (unless your tenancy has converted into ownership).
You must be the last-named recorded owner of the property noted in the Sasine Register to voluntarily register it.
If you are not the last-named recorded owner noted in the Sasine Register and your title proceeds on certificates of confirmation or docket transfers or, generally any midcouple or link in title that does not have the effect of completing title then registration of a notice of title is required.
Title deeds
The last recorded deed will contain information that will assist the smooth processing of your application. Therefore, we would encourage applicants to submit this deed where it is available.
We'll also need details of any outstanding heritable securities over the plot to be included in the application form, and the security deed(s) themselves should be submitted too.
Plans of your property boundaries
To ensure that we are able to map the property, you must submit:
- A plan and/or full bounding description identifying the extent of the plot. If this is contained in a recorded deed, you should submit this deed. Your map or bounding description must meet certain requirements.
- If the plan used to identify the extent isn't contained in a deed, the plan should be clearly referred to in the application form. However, it doesn't need to be "certified", and it's not necessary for it to be signed by either the applicant or by the solicitor agent submitting the application.
- We can accept a digital plan, provided that it meets our digital data criteria. Note a digital plan is a shapefile or equivalent electronic file. A scanned copy of a plan originally produced on paper is not a digital plan. We do accept scanned copies of deeds for registration purposes, but these are not the same as digital data.
Care should be taken where it appears that the extent of the plot intended to be registered comprises a part of the national trunk road network/infrastructure.
For clarification, "trunk road" means a road or proposed road which is a trunk road within the meaning of section 151(1) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.
Current list of Scotland's trunk roads
Trunk roads in Scotland, and their attendant infrastructure, are the responsibility of the Scottish Ministers and are managed and maintained by Transport Scotland on their behalf.
Where it appears that the extent of the plot intended to be registered comprises a part of the national trunk road network/infrastructure, the applicant should check to ensure that their title is indeed habile to include such a part in order to avoid the Keeper erroneously making the register inaccurate.
Rights and burdens
Make sure that your application contains:
- Any deed in which servitude rights in favour of the plot are constituted.
- A plan or full description of the servitude that wasn't created in a deed (such as a servitude created by prescription).
- Any deeds containing other rights (such as the right to enforce a real burden) in favour of the property and, if there is a burdened property, the particulars of that property in so far as known.
- Deeds or documents that contain subsisting encumbrances, for example real burdens, long leases, long sub-leases, public rights of way, path orders, tree preservation orders, and any other encumbrances the inclusion of which is authorised by an enactment.
- Part of the land to be registered might be affected by an encumbrance or subordinate right (such as a servitude). If you want this land to be shown on the cadastral map, you must submit a plan or description of it that's of sufficient quality to allow the keeper to map it on the cadastral map.
Final checks and submitting your application
The appropriate fee or arrangements satisfactory for payment: a 25 per cent reduction will apply. See our registration fees page for more information.
An application to register a new standard security over an unregistered plot must be accompanied by an application to voluntarily register that plot. See our closure of sasines to standard securities for more information.
An owner who intends to submit their application without doing so through a legally qualified person, will be required to complete our identification form and should seek to submit all the relevant deeds including unrecorded links in title and additional evidence of any legal and plans searches.
Footnote
- You can submit a copy of a recorded deed in its unrecorded form. This might be a final draft or photocopy of the executed deed. You must be content that the copy you give us accurately reflects the recorded deed, and that your application doesn't contain any conflicting information. The date of recording of the deed and the division of sasines that it entered should also be stated in your application.
If there is an off-register right that affects the land you want to register (a servitude for example) which is contained in a deed that was never recorded in the General Register of Sasines, the application should make this clear. You should also provide the deed in this situation.
For information about off-register rights see the general guidance on encumbrances and off-register rights.↵