This Act may be cited for all purposes as “The Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1874.”

This Act shall, except where otherwise provided, come into operation on the first day of October one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, which date is herein-after referred to as the commencement of this Act.

The following words and expressions in this Act shall have the several meanings hereby assigned to them; that is to say,

• “Land” or “lands” shall include all subjects of heritable property which F25prior to the day appointed by order made under section 71 of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5) were, or might be, held of a superior according to feudal tenure, or which prior to the commencement of this Act have been or might have been held by burgage tenure, or by tenure of booking:

• “Estate in land” shall mean any interest in land, whether in fee, life-rent, or security, and whether beneficial or in trust, or any real burden on land, and shall include an estate of F26superiority:

• “Superior” shall include the Crown, the Prince and Steward of Scotland, and all subject superiors, and shall also include mid-superiors; “F26superiority” shall include mid-superiority:

• “Conveyance” and “deed” and “instrument” shall each have the meaning attached thereto by the M1Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1868, and the M2Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1869, and shall also, when used in this Act, include all the deeds, instruments, decrees, petitions, and writings specified in this Act, and the words “heritable securities” and “securities” shall have the meaning attached thereto by the said recited Acts, and shall also, when used in this Act, include real burdens and securities by way of ground annual:

• F26“Infeftment” shall include every title to an estate in land requiring and admitting of infeftment which is duly recorded in the appropriate register of sasines:

• F26“Feu” shall include “blench,” and “feu-duty” shall include “blench duty”:

• F26“Casualties” shall include the relief duty payable on the entry or succession of an heir, the composition or other duty payable on the entry of a singular successor, whether by law or under the conditions of the feu, and all payments exigible in lieu of such duties and compositions, and all periodical fixed sums or quantities which may be stipulated for under this Act:

• “Sheriff” shall include . . . F1 sheriff substitute . . . F1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It shall not be competent to object to the validity of any deed or writing as a conveyance of heritage coming into operation after the passing of this Act, on the ground that it does not contain the word “dispone,” provided it contains any other word or words importing conveyance or transference, or present intention to convey or transfer.

Where no term of entry is stated in a conveyance of lands, the entry shall be at the first term of Whitsunday or Martinmas after the date or last date of the conveyance, unless it shall appear from the terms of the conveyance that another term of entry was intended.

No decree, instrument, or conveyance F32under this Act, and no other decree, instrument, or conveyance, whether dated before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be deemed to be invalid because the series of titles connecting the person obtaining such decree, or expeding such instrument, or holding such conveyance, with the person F33who last held a recorded title contains as links of the series two or more general dispositions, or because any general disposition forming a part of the series does not contain a clause of assignation of writs.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A decree of division of commonty or of common property or runrig lands, whether pronounced by a court of law, or by arbiters or by an oversman, shall have the effect of a conveyance containing assignations of writs by all the F36joint proprietors in favour of the several parties participating in the division of the shares severally allotted to them, and the extract decree pronounced by the court, or the decree pronounced by the arbiters or oversmen, or an extract thereof from any competent court books, may be recorded in the appropriate register of sasines, in ordinary form on behalf of all or any of the parties, or may be used by all or any of the parties for the purpose of F37deducing title to the shares severally allotted to them, or to any portion thereofF36, as an assignation, or one of a series of assignations, of an unrecorded conveyance or of a personal right under this Act.

A decree of sale obtained in terms of section seventeen of the M3Glebe Lands (Scotland) Act, 1866, shall have the effect of a conveyance by the minister of the parish at the sight of the heritors of the parish and of the presbytery of the bounds,to the heritor in whose favour it is pronounced, and his heirs and assignees whomsoever, of the glebe or portion of glebe therein contained; and, on an extract of such decree being recorded in the appropriate register of sasines, shall vest in such heritor the glebe or portion of the glebe described thereinF38, with a holding of the Crown for payment of a penny Scots yearly, if asked only, as fully and completely as if he had obtained a charter from the Crown by virtue of such decree, and been infeft thereon in common form.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

When a trust title F41to land or to a real right in or over land has been duly completed and recorded, and any person is subsequently appointed by the court to administer the trust in whole or in part as a trustee or judicial factor, the interlocutor whereby the appointment is made shall specify the trust deed, and the other title or titles (if any) by which the trust title had been completed as aforesaid, in such manner as to identify the same, and shall refer to the register or registers of sasines where such deed or title or titles is or are recorded, and also set forth the lands by description or reference; and an extract of such interlocutor, being recorded in the appropriate register of sasines, shall operate F40to complete, in favour of the trustee or judicial factor thereby appointed,F41title to the land or real right in the same manner as if he had been a trustee named in the completed and recorded title in conformity always with the nature and terms of the appointment, and to the effect of enabling him to perform the duties of the office to which he is appointed.

When by the tenor of the title to any F42land, or any real right in or over land, held in trust duly completed in favour of the trustee or trustees therein named, or any of them, and recorded in the appropriate register of sasines, the office of a trustee has been or shall be conferred upon the holder of any place or office, or proprietor of any estate, and his successors therein, any person subsequently becoming a trustee by appointment or succession to the place or office or estate to which the office of trustee has thus been or shall be annexed shall be deemed and taken to have a valid and complete title F42to the land or real right, in the same manner and to the same effect as if he had been named in the completed and recorded title, without the necessity of any deed of conveyance or other procedure.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F15 an heritable security for money, duly constituted F43over land, or over a real right in land, shall, together with any personal obligation to pay principal, interest, and penalty contained in the deed or instrument whereby the security is constituted, transmit against any person taking F43such land or real right by succession, gift, or bequest, or by conveyance, when an agreement to that effect appears in gremio of the conveyance, and shall be a burden upon his title in the same manner as it was upon that of his ancestor or author, without the necessity of a bond of corroboration or other deed or procedure; and the personal obligation may be enforced against such person by summary diligence or otherwise, in the same manner as against the original debtor. A warrant to charge may be applied for and validly granted in the Bill Chamber or in a Sheriff Court, in the form set forth in Schedule K. hereto annexed, or in a similar form, and all diligence may thereafter proceed against the party in common form. A discharge of the personal obligation of the original or any subsequent debtor, whether granted before or after the commencement of this Act, shall not where the debt still exists prejudice the security on F43the land or real right or the obligation as hereby made transmissible against the existing proprietor.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

An assignation or conveyance of any obligation or right of relief or other right connected with lands, but the title to which does not, according to the present law, pass under the general assignation of writs in the disposition of the lands, may be granted in, or as nearly as may be in, the form of Schedule M. hereto annexed, and may either be a separate deed or part of another deed, and shall have the effect of vesting in the person or persons in whose favour it is granted, and his or their successors, a valid and complete right and title to the obligation or right thereby assigned or conveyed, with all the intermediate transmissions thereof, to the same effect in all respects as if an assignation or conveyance in the form at present in use had been granted in his or their favour.

The F46production to any notary public of the probate of the will or other testamentary settlement of a person deceased, issued by F16(a)any Court of Probate in England or in Ireland, or in any British colony or dependency F16or (b) a district court in Palestine before 15th May 1948, F17or (c) the Supreme Court of Aden before 30th November 1967,or F47an exemplification of such probate, shall for the purpose of completing a title to any land, or real right in land, or to any heritable security, be held to be equivalent to and as effectual as F46the production to such notary of the will or settlement itself, or of an extract thereof from the books of council and sessionF46, and it shall not be competent to institute any challenge of any notarial instrument in respect of the probate or exemplification having been used as the warrant for expeding the same prior to the commencement of this Act.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No challenge of any deed, instrument, or writing recorded in any register of sasines shall receive effect on the ground that any part of the record of such deed, instrument, or writing is written on erasure, unless such erasure be proved to have been made for the purpose of fraud, or the record is not conformable to the deed, instrument, or writing as presented for registration.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The provisions of this Act F52shall apply to lands held of the Crown and of the Prince, in the same way as to lands held of a subject superior, but shall not prejudice or affect the jus coronæ as a title to lands or heritages.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F20 in all cases where any lands have been particularly described in any conveyance, deed, or instrument of or relating thereto, recorded in the appropriate register of sasines, it shall not be necessary in any subsequent conveyance, deed, or instrument, conveying or referring to the whole or any part of such lands, to repeat the particular description of the lands at length; but it shall be sufficient to specify the name of the county, and where the lands were held by burgage or by any similar tenure prior to the commencement of this Act, the name of the burgh and county in which the lands are situated, and to refer to the particular description of such lands as contained in such prior conveyance, deed, or instrument so recorded in or as nearly as may be in the form set forth in Schedule O. hereto annexed; and the specification and reference so made in any such subsequent conveyance, deed, or instrument, whether dated prior or subsequent to the commencement of this Act, shall be held to be equivalent to the full insertion of the particular description contained in such prior conveyance, deed, or instrument, and shall have the same effect as if the particular description had been inserted in such subsequent conveyance, deed, or instrument exactly as it is contained in such prior conveyance, deed, or instrument; and it shall not be competent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F21 to object to any specification and reference to any particular description of lands contained in any conveyance, deed, or instrument recorded prior to the commencement of this Act, provided such specification and reference states correctly the name of the county, and where the lands were held by burgage or by any similar tenure prior to the commencement of this Act, the name of the burgh and county in which the lands are situated, and refers correctly to the prior recorded conveyance, deed, or instrument containing the particular description of such lands; and where any conveyance, deed, or instrument recorded prior to the commencement of this Act contains a specification and reference stating these particulars correctly, the specification and reference so made shall be held to have been equivalent to the full insertion of the particular description contained in the prior conveyance, deed, or instrument referred to, as if the particular description had been inserted in such recorded conveyance, deed, or instrument exactly as it is contained in the prior conveyance, deed, or instrument referred to.

Section sixty-two of “The titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1868,” and section four of “The Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1869,” are hereby repealed, and in place thereof the following words shall be deemed and taken to be the sixty-second section of the said Act of 1868, and the said Act of 1868 shall be read and construed as if the sixty-second section thereof had been originally expressed in the following words, viz:

In all cases a decree of adjudication, whether for debt or in implement, or a decree of constitution and adjudication, whether for debt or in implement, if duly obtained in teh form prescribed by this Act, or obtained, if prior to the commencement of this Act, in the form then in use, or a decree of declarator and adjudication, or a decree of sale, shall, except in the case where the subjects contained in the decree of adjudication, or of constitution and adjudication, or of declarator and adjudication, are heritable securities, be held equivalent to and shall have the legal operation and effect of a conveyance in ordianry form of the lands therein contained granted in favour of the adjudger or purchaser by the ancestor of such apparent heir, or by the owner or proprietor in trust or otherwise, and whether in life or deceased, of the lands adjudged, or by the seller of the lands sold, although in nonage or of insane mind, to be holden in the case of lands not held by burgage tenure in the manner of holding is expressed, and to be holden of Her Majesty in free burgage in the case of lands held by burgage tenure and it shall be lawful and competent to such adjudger or purchaser to complete feudal titles to said lands, not only by infeftment on such decree as a conveyance or by using it, for the purpose of infeftment, as an assignation or as one of a series of assignations of an unrecorded conveyance, as the case may be, in the manner provided this Act, but also when the lands are not held by burgage tenure, by obtaining from the superior charter of adjudication or of sale of said lands and expeding infeftment on such charter in common form, or where the ancestor of such apparent heir, or the owner or proprietor in trust or otherwise, or seller of the lands adjudged or sold, shall have been or shall be entered with his superior, or in a situation to charge such superior, under the powers in this Act contained, to grant entry by confirmation, by taking infeftment on such decree as a conveyance, in the manner provided by this Act, and thereafter obtaining from the superior of the lands a charter or writ of confirmation of such decree and infeftment proceeding on the same, which infeftment shall, with such decreee, be an effectual feudal investiture in the said lands in terms of such decree, holding base of the owner or proprietor in trust or otherwise, or seller of the lands adjudged or sold, and his heirs, until confirmation thereof shall be granted by the superior of the lands, in the same manner and to the same effect as if such owner or proprietor or seller had granted a disposition of the lands to the adjuder or purchaser in the terms of the said decree, with an obligation to infeft a me vel de me to be completed by confirmation, and a precept of sasine, and the adjudger or purchaser had been infeft on such precept, and the effect of the charter or writ of confirmation of such decree or of the infeftment thus proceeding upon the same shall be to make the lands hold immediately of and under such superior; but the right of the superior to the composition payable by the adjudger or purchaser as due under the existing law is hereby reserved entire, and the adjudger or purchaser, by taking infeftment on any such decree in any of the modes above mentioned, shall become indebted in such composition to the superior, and shall be bound to pay the same on the superior tendering a charter or writ of confirmation, whether such charter or writ shall be accepted or not, and the superior shall be entitled to recover such composition as accords of law; and it is hereby provided, that such infeftment on amy such decree shall, without prejudice to any other diligence or procedure, be of itself sufficient to make the adjudication effectual in all questions of bankruptcy of diligence:

Provided always, that where the investiture of any lands has imposed or shall impose a prohibition against subinfeudation or alternative holding, such adjudger or purchaser shall, in respect of such recorded decree or of any notarial instrument following on such decree, and notwithstanding and such prohibition, be deemed and taken to be duly infeft in the lands adjudged or sold as from the date of recording such decree or instrument, but without prejudice to the right of the superior to require such adjudger or purchaser to enter forthwith as accords of law, and to deal with such adjudger or purchaser, as with a vassal unentered.

Section one hundred and twenty-seven of the last-recited Act is hereby repealed, and in place thereof the following words shall be deemed and be taken to be the one hundred and twenty-seventh section of the last-recited Act, and the last-recited Act shall be read and construed as if the one hundred and twenty-seventh section thereof had been originally expressed in the following words, viz:

Section one hundred and twenty-nine of the last-recited Act is hereby repealed, and in place thereof the following words shall be deemed and be taken to be the one hundred and twenty-ninth section of the last-recited Act, and the last-recited Act shall be read and construed as if the one hundred and twenty-ninth section thereof had been originally expressed in the following words, viz;

The schedules annexed to this Act, and the directions therein contained, and notes thereto appended, shall have the same effect as if they were contained in the body of this Act.

All statutes, laws, and usages at variance with any of the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.