THE Registers of Scotland has said new legislation will help prevent new homes being built in the wrong place and buyers being stranded without valid title deeds.
RoS was responding to The Herald's reports detailing how four West Lothian families are still do not own homes in Happy Valley Road, Blackburn, they bought 14 years ago.
RoS said: "Where a problem does arise RoS have no legal locus to intervene - it is absolutely for the purchaser's solicitor and the developer to resolve."
In response to a Freedom of Information request this year from a consultant, RoS said it "could draw potential anomalies to the attention of the submitting solicitor".
But if resolution was not achieved within a certain timescale, it was "entitled" to proceed with registration.
In this case, some 15 months elapsed between RoS notifying solicitors and registering the land, on which four houses partially stood, to a developer. There followed 11 years of litigation, which ended in May 2013.
The agency said: "However, RoS does not want the problem to arise in the first place and that is why we have been promoting DPA (development plan approval)." DPA would provide the developer and any prospective purchaser with an assurance over the developer's title, and would not trigger additional costs for the buyer.
RoS said the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012, not yet in force, had a general aim "to make conveyancing and registration safer for those involved in the housing market".
A statutory duty of care would "require solicitors to ensure applications are legally correct before they are submitted to the Keeper".
However, The Herald has now been made aware of a Scottish buyer who has no title to a flat worth over £300,000, more than 10 years after buying it. The seller took the cash before becoming bankrupt, and the trustee has yet to establish their right to the property.
A family member said: "My relative has been subjected to years of stress, ill-health, and mounting legal bills which could easily bankrupt him - ironically to pay the debts of a bankrupt - and faces potential homelessness. Where is the justice, and where is solicitors' responsibility in all of this?"
He added: "A property buyer should not be required to hand over money for a property without clear title for it being delivered at the same time."
The case echoes our report in April 2010 of the Lanarkshire couple who gained title to their £340,000 home only after a protracted four-year legal wrangle with the trustee to the seller, who had signed a trust deed immediately after pocketing the cash.
In that case, the couple said the trustee had taken too long, while the trustee said the fault lay with solicitors on both sides. The Law Society of Scotland said solicitors took personal responsibility for covering any "gap", and delivering a registered title, and were indemnified accordingly.
The Accountant in Bankruptcy said a debtor in such a case had "no right to sell the property".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article