About the seminar
For the thirtieth successive year, Professor Kenneth Reid and Professor George Gretton will be giving a comprehensive and indispensable review of the cases and statutory developments during the past 12 months which affect conveyancing law and practice. This seminar will be chaired by Alan Barr, Partner, Brodies LLP/University of Edinburgh.
In the remarkable and unsettling year of 2020, it ceased to be possible to submit paper deeds for registration, while the digital process which replaced it, though beginning as a temporary expedient to deal with coronavirus and the closure of the offices of Registers of Scotland, started to take on an air of permanency. A number of more obviously temporary changes to conveyancing law and practice were made by the two Coronavirus (Scotland) Acts of 2020: an update as to the current position and future prospects will be given at the seminar.
Despite the virus, the courts struggled on, albeit at reduced levels of activity, and cases of significance continued to be decided. Two different decisions grappled with the issue of whether a right to make use of land can be constituted as a servitude. The courts returned to the question of whether an A-to-A disposition can found prescription. A seller’s right to rescind missives in the event of non-payment was considered by the Sheriff Appeal Court. Following last year’s flurry of cases, there was more authority on the validity of maintenance burdens for amenity ground in housing developments, as well as a case on manager burdens, a neglected topic rarely considered by the courts. An important and unexpected topic of litigation was whether the grantee of a registered disposition could be deprived of property rights merely by the judicial rectification of a deed of conditions which had been incorporated in the disposition by reference.
Leases were, as usual, well-represented, with cases covering topics such as a landlord’s refusal to consent to an assignation, the meaning of open market rent, the proper construction of provisions on service charges, and whether a landlord was bound under the lease to provide a water supply for the tenant. Other matters to attract the attention of the courts in 2020 included pre-emptions, options, wayleaves, variation and discharge of title conditions, the liability of searchers for failing to pick up an inhibition, solicitors’ negligence, common good, and high hedges.
All these and other developments in the law will be discussed and evaluated during the seminar. This year, sadly, we cannot be with you in person but we are confident that we can recreate the ‘live’ experience over Zoom. This also allows us to give you a choice of dates, and to add on as an extra a separate Q&A session in which we will answer questions submitted live or in writing, as well as deal with topics which we did not have time to cover in the main seminar. Although all the seminars will cover much the same material, the focus at each will be slightly different:
- 19 January will be slightly more on rural conveyancing
- 26 and 27 January will spend more time on commercial conveyancing
As always, a substantial set of materials will give the full text of the talks, and will also list and summarise all cases and statutory material from 2020. A copy of the revised materials will be sent to each delegate paying the standard fee when published in book form in the spring of 2021.
Learning Outcomes and Objectives
The learning outcomes and objectives are that by the end of the seminar delegates will have (i) a sound knowledge and understanding of all major developments in Conveyancing; (ii) an appreciation of how these developments could or should influence their practice; and (iii) an indispensable set of source materials for easy reference following the seminar.
