The General Register of Sasines holds a special place in land registration history. Established in 1617, it is the oldest national land register in the world. For over four centuries, it has been a cornerstone of Scottish property law and has evolved – sometimes naturally, other times, less so – alongside its modern counterparts to shape Scotland’s current property landscape.

 

The world’s oldest land register

The General Register of Sasines is as a testament to Scotland’s pioneering role in land registration. An act of the old Scots Parliament established it in 1617, primarily recording state documents and royal charters out of reach today by conveyancers conducting common-or-garden property searches. We do, however, have access to searchable records back to the early 1781.

While there were relatively few landowners in 1617, by 1869, more land was changing hands as Scotland – and the rest of the UK – moved from a mainly rural nation to an industrialised country. To keep up with the increase in property transactions, the register underwent significant restructuring. The 1869 reorganisation established the county-by-county approach we still see in today’s searches, streamlining the record-keeping process and creating far for more efficient searches.

Just seven years later, in 1876, a game-changing innovation arrived: search sheets. This revolutionised the tracking and identifying of ownership information, making it considerably easier to compile a property’s ownership history and simplifying the complexities of title searching.

The Sasine Register has continued to evolve for the ever-changing needs of Scotland’s property system. Its ongoing relevance in certain transactions underscores its importance in Scottish conveyancing, even as newer registration systems emerge.

Modernising the Land Register

After 1876, little changed legally for nearly a century, but land registration in other countries started using map-based approaches, and discussions in Scotland began to explore a similar approach around the turn of the century.

The Land Register of Scotland came into law at the somewhat hurried signing of the Land Registration Act 1979, in the closing days of Callaghan’s government. In doing so, the country pivoted from a deed-sorting to a map-based system, and the Act received considerable criticism for its complexities and inconsistencies. Conveyancers found holes in the legislation, which they felt favoured ease of property transfer over the security of the title.

Recognising the need for modernisation, the Scottish Parliament passed the Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012, on a mission to accelerate land registration and ultimately close the Sasine Register. The 2012 Act introduced a more streamlined registration process and addressed many of the shortcomings of its predecessor.

However, in May 2014, Scottish ministers were frustrated by the lack of progress towards closing the Sasine Register. In the 40-plus years of the Land Register, only about half of Scotland’s land mass had been registered. So ministers set an ambitious goal: register all of Scotland’s land ownership by 31st December 2024 and finally transition completely from the Sasine Register to a comprehensive Land Register.

Hobbling the process, though, are the considerable differences between the Sasine and Land Registers. The centuries-old Sasine Register is essentially a chronological list of handwritten deed entries. In contrast, the Land Register is a digital map-based system that uses Ordnance Survey data for a more accessible and visual representation of land ownership.

Several initiatives were introduced to speed up the registration process. Voluntary registration allows property owners to proactively register their land, and the Keeper-Induced Registration (KIR) programme saw Registers of Scotland place 700,000 properties on the Land Register in 2017 alone.

Perhaps the most interesting initiative is the Unlocking Sasines project , which uses spatial data to provide indicative ownership information, bridging the gap between the old Sasine system and the modern Land Register. Unlocking Sasines alone added 34.9% of Scotland’s land mass to the cadastral map, marking a crucial step towards comprehensive land registration. However the key term here is “indicative ownership” as the unlocked sasine data provides a guide to ownership but not to the extent that it can be robustly relied upon.

Mapping the future and preserving the past

Still, while the Scottish Government’s ambitious target to have all of Scotland’s land mass registered by 2024 has driven significant progress, challenges persist as the deadline looms . By May 2024, over 54% of Scotland’s land mass had been successfully registered in the Land Register, marking substantial headway towards the goal and a fundamental change in how Scotland records property ownership.

However, closing the General Register of Sasines is a monumental task fraught with complexities and intricate legal and practical considerations that impact property owners, legal professionals and government agencies. It is not just a matter of digitising some old records.

The scale of this undertaking has inevitably led to a significant backlog at Registers of Scotland (RoS). Millar & Bryce Operations Director, Gary Donaldson, highlighted the hidden consequences of this backlog in a recent blog post . The delays in processing registrations can have far-reaching effects, potentially impacting property transactions, refinancing efforts and even large-scale development projects while the application is open. This backlog underscores the importance of efficient, experienced conveyancing services to navigate these challenges.

While we move towards our digital system of comprehensive land registration, the legacy of the Sasine Register continues to shape Scotland’s property landscape. With a substantial portion of Scotland’s land still recorded in the Sasine Register, expertise in navigating this centuries-old system continues to be a valuable skill.

Many solicitors turn to specialist services for Sasine searches, recognising the nuanced understanding required to interpret these historical records accurately.

For conveyancing professionals, this period of transition demands a unique blend of historical knowledge and adaptability to new systems. As we approach the 2024 deadline, the ability to bridge the gap between these two worlds of land registration will remain a key differentiator in providing comprehensive, reliable conveyancing services.

Sources

1. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/sasines
2. https://www.lawscot.org.uk/members/journal/issues/vol-51-issue-02/in-on-the-act/
3. https://www.genguide.co.uk/source/sasines-registers-of-land-property-scotland/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_registration_(Scots_law)
5. https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/amanda-cameron-deadline-for-closure-of-worlds-oldest-land-register-nears
6. https://www.millar-bryce.com/news/hidden-consequences-of-backlog-of-ros-open-casework/