[1] The Registration Act 1617 stipulated that the instrument of sasine required registration in order to create real rights: "HIS Maiestie with aduyis and consent of the estaittis of Parliament statutes and ordanis That thair salbe ane publick Register In the whiche all Reuersiounes regresses bandis and writtis for making of reuersiounes or regresses assignatiounes thairto dischargis of the same renunciatiounes of wodsettis and grantis off redemptioun and siclyik all instrumentis of seasing salbe registrat .

[7] The Register of Sasines operated by the public registration of deeds transferring land, such as feudal grants and dispositions, in order to make certain the right of ownership under the 1617 Act.

However, the Scottish Law Commission have noted that the reliance on the public register provides certainty and security for the parties engaging in the sale of land.

[16] The race has been characterised by the distinguished judge, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry as: a struggle in deadly earnest with the aim of destroying the other competitor's chance to obtain the real right by recording the relevant deed and infefting himself first.

[17]In practice, the introduction of Advance Notices under the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012 has reduced the "struggle" in the race to the register.

[26] Ms Burnett's trustee raised an action for declarator in the sheriff court at Aberdeen, in the Sheriffdom of the Grampian, Highland and Island.

Lord Hope noted: This simple view of the case tends to suggest that the situation in which the appellants [i.e. the Graingers] now find themselves is unfair.

[31] [Underlines and brackets added]Lord Hope went on to find that the Grainger's had not obtained the real right of ownership because they had not registered the disposition granted to them.

Therefore: The real right in the property of which Mrs Burnett was the beneficial owner remained vested in her at the date when the permanent trustee's notice of title was recorded in the Sasine Register.

[33] [Underlines and brackets added]Lord Rodger explains: At the time when Mrs Burnett was sequestrated, the appellants were disponees to whom the disponer had delivered the disposition but who had not yet recorded it in the register and were accordingly not yet infeft [ie: they did not have ownership].

As the authorities show, even although the respondent was well aware that the appellants held a disposition from Mrs Burnett, he was fully entitled to take advantage of their mistake by recording the notice of title and so completing the diligence by acquiring the real right in the subjects for the creditors.

If the transferee in a voluntary transfer is an unincorporated association, of which there is no definition in Scots law but is generally interpreted as "a group of persons bound together by agreement for a particular purpose".

In theory, it is available for public viewing, but the record system is complex, so enquirers will often require the assistance of staff or private-title researchers to identify the relevant deed, upon payment of fees.

However, souvenir plots are banned for registration in the Land Register, in effect preventing any buyer from obtaining a real right of ownership in Scotland.

Additionally, titles of peerage are only available by letters patent from the sovereign; and Scots heraldry (coats of arms and related insignia) are only available by grant of the Court of the Lord Lyon.

A few days later, B drives to the house to move in, opens the door and meets C, the true owner of the property, sitting in the living room.

The perceived unfairness of the operation of the Keeper's 'Midas touch', among other criticisms of the 1979 act, led to the recommendation for its abolition by the Scottish Law Commission.

[19] As discussed above, ownership transfers instantaneously the moment the Keeper registers the disposition, thereby changing the Section B individual listed as Proprietor.

[123] However, in order to initiate the prescriptive process, a possessor is required to found possession based on registration of an ex facie deed, also termed a foundation writ.

[122] This means a deed which appears to be valid ex facie (i.e. on the face of it) but is otherwise invalid can give a possessor the right of ownership, irrespective of the consent of the true owner of the property, after the passage of the prescriptive period.

[126] In this case, the defenders, Youngson and others, had granted an a non domino disposition which named themselves as granters and grantees and had it recorded in the General Register of Sasines in order to commence the prescriptive period for positive possession.

Lord Menzies also cited with approval the statement in Gretton, GL, and Reid, KGC, Conveyancing, at paras 7.25, that "a disposition a non domino must not reveal that the disponer is not the owner, or it will lose its potential status as a foundation writ.

It is used in property law to describe a disposition that the Keeper is aware of being wholly or partially invalid on the basis of the grantee having no legal right to give title, thereby failing the normal conditions for registration (see above), but can be registered regardless.

[138] The applicant must then send a special notice – a Form of Notification, available online from the Registers of Scotland's website[139] – to that person's last known address, by recorded delivery, such that its posting can be demonstrated to the Keeper.

[125] If the company is listed as dissolved, then the land falls to the Crown as bona vacantia, and so the King's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (KLTR) must be contacted.

The applicant must in this case send the Form of Notification by recorded delivery to the Crown's representative, the King's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (KLTR),[144] which produces policy guidance on how prescriptive claims are dealt with.

[153] Where the Keeper is entirely satisfied that the requirements of the 2012 Act have been met, and no objection has been tendered, the applicant's name will be provisionally entered in the Land Register.

[186] These complaints, along with other problems with land registration, were addressed by the Scottish Law Commission in its report, primarily the recommendation of the introduction of Advance Notices.

[187] The introduction of Advance Notices under the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012 led to letters of obligation falling into disuse.

Margaret's solicitor, as commonly agreed in the missives of sale, applies for an advance notice to be placed in the Land Register relating to the disposition given to Innes on 4 November 2020.