What is the Law in Your Life?

5 things you need to know about Keeper Induced Registration:

1.   In terms of The Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 ("the Act"), the Keeper of the Land Register is entitled to induce registration of title to properties in the Land Register. This is known as Keeper Induced Registration ("KIR) and is supplementary to the registration of title by way of transfer of title or by voluntary registration.

2.  The Keeper has accepted an obligation to complete the Land Register by 2024. This is an ambitious target. KIR will be used to help accelerate the programme of registration of title. Registers of Scotland will engage with the legal profession, local authorities and agencies such as citizens advice bureaux in a particular area before KIR happens for that area. Individual landowners will be notified once their title has been brought onto the Land Register.

3.   Initially, KIR will only be used in 3 Land Register Research Areas: Carnoustie Edinburgh (Murrayfield); Glasgow (Bearsden). KIR will then be rolled out across the country in appropriate circumstances.

4.   Where a title is transferred to the Land Register by KIR, the owner will not incur any of the costs of the transfer. All work will be undertaken by the Keeper''s staff. The owner will receive a letter informing him/her that the title is to be registered using KIR and will be asked to confirm a few facts as summarised in a letter from the Keeper. An obvious example of where KIR will be useful is where the title to say, 5 out of 8 flats in a tenement block are registered in the Land Register but the other 3 titles are not. It will be expedient and beneficial for the remaining 3 titles to be registered.

5.   A title registered using KIR will, to all intents and purposes, look like a title registered in the normal way under the Act. It will be a facsimile of the title which is, at that time, recorded in the Register of Sasines. The Keeper will bear the costs of registration and so there will be no additional cost to a homeowner.  The owner will benefit from a state-backed guaranteed title.  There will be no erosion of rights for homeowners whose titles are brought onto the Land Register by the KIR process itself.