Conveyancing - What Happened in 2023?

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For the thirty-third successive year, this seminar will provide a comprehensive and indispensable review of the cases and statutory developments during the past 12 months which affect conveyancing law and practice. 

In 2023 there was important new authority from the Inner House on the drafting of real burdens and the requirement of certainty. Cases on servitudes covered such matters as whether car-parking is permissible by the servient proprietor on the route of a servitude, whether a servitude for vehicular access can be broken down into separate vehicular categories (e.g. residential, commercial and agricultural) so that the neglect of one category could lead to its loss by negative prescription, and whether a servitude which has been extinguished by confusion is reborn in the event of the two properties coming again into separate ownership. The requirements for positive prescription featured in two cases, one on the vexed question of sufficiency of possession, the other on whether a disposition with contradictory elements in its description can found prescription.  

Among the topics litigated in the Court of Session on commercial leases were the validity of service of a pre-irritancy notice, dilapidations, and the status of a ‘conclusive’ certificate by the landlord in respect of service charges. Meanwhile, the Upper Tribunal was busy in the area of residential leases, deciding appeals on matters such as the validity of notices to quit, eviction on the ground of antisocial behaviour, and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Edinburgh Council’s proposed licensing policy for short-term lets was found by the Court of Session to be irrational. In respect of standard securities, the Inner House took a helpfully accommodating view on how closely the statutory styles need to be followed. Other matters to attract the attention of the courts during 2023 included missives, land registration, and variation and discharge of title conditions. 

The major statutory development of 2023 was the long-awaited passing of the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act, with its promise of yet more new registers.

All these and other developments in the law will be discussed and evaluated during the seminar. There will also be a special Q&A session on Zoom 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. 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 2023. Each delegate registered at the standard fee will receive a copy of the revised materials when published in book form in the spring of 2024.

Speakers

Kenneth Reid, Professor Emeritus of Scots Law, George Gretton, Lord President Reid Professor of Law Emeritus, and Andrew Steven, Professor of Property Law, all at the University of Edinburgh.

Chaired by Alan Barr, partner Brodies LLP and Honorary Fellow of the Law School, University of Edinburgh   

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 over the last 12 months; (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.