Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Citation | 2000 asp 5 |
Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000
asp 5
.
[9th June 2000]
The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament on 3rd May 2000 and received Royal Assent onAn Act of the Scottish Parliament to abolish the feudal system of land tenure; to abolish a related system of land tenure; to make new provision as respects the ownership of land; to make consequential provision for the extinction and recovery of feuduties and of certain other perpetual periodical payments and for the extinction by prescription of any obligation to pay redemption money under the Land Tenure Reform (Scotland) Act 1974; to make further provision as respects real burdens affecting land; to provide for the disentailment of land; to discharge all rights of irritancy held by superiors; to abolish the obligation of thirlage; to prohibit with certain exceptions the granting of leases over land for periods exceeding 175 years; to make new provision as respects conveyancing; to enable firms with separate personality to own land; and for connected purposes.
1Part
Abolition of feudal tenure
1 Abolition on appointed day
The feudal system of land tenure, that is to say the entire system whereby land is held by a vassal on perpetual tenure from a superior is, on the appointed day, abolished.
2 Consequences of abolition
(1) An estate of dominium utile of land shall, on the appointed day, cease to exist as a feudal estate but shall forthwith become the ownership of the land and, in so far as is consistent with the provisions of this Act, the land shall be subject to the same subordinate real rights and other encumbrances as was the estate of dominium utile.
(2) Every other feudal estate in land shall, on that day, cease to exist.
(3) It shall, on that day, cease to be possible to create a feudal estate in land.
3 Amendment of Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979
The Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 (c.33) shall be amended as follows—
(a) in section 4(2) (applications for registration which are not to be accepted by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland), after paragraph (a) there shall be inserted—
‘(aa) it relates in whole or in part to an interest in land which by, under or by virtue of any provision of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5) is an interest which has ceased to exist;’;
(i) in subsection (3), at the beginning insert ‘Subject to subsection (3B) below,’; and
(3B) Subject to subsection (3C) below, rectification (whether requisite or in exercise of the Keeper's discretion) to take account of, or of anything done (or purportedly done) under or by virtue of, any provision of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5), other than section 4 or 65, shall, for the purposes of subsection (3) above (and of section 12(3)(cc) of this Act), be deemed not to prejudice a proprietor in possession.
(3C) For the purposes of subsection (3B) above, rectification does not include entering or reinstating in a title sheet a real burden or a condition affecting an interest in land.’; and
‘(cc) the loss arises in consequence of—
(i) a rectification which; or
(ii) there being, in the register, an inaccuracy the rectification of which,
were there a proprietor in possession, would be deemed, by subsection (3B) of section 9 of this Act, not to prejudice that proprietor;’.
2Part
Land transfers etc. on and after appointed day
4 Ownership of land
(1) Ownership of land shall pass—
(a) in a case where a transfer is registrable under section 2 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 (c.33), on registration in the Land Register of Scotland;
(b) in any other case, on recording of a conveyance of the land in the Register of Sasines.
(2) This section is without prejudice to any other enactment, or rule of law, by or under which ownership of land may pass.
(3) In subsection (1) above—
(a) ‘conveyance’ includes—
(i) conveyance by, or under, any enactment, rule of law or decree; and
(ii) a notice of title deducing title through a conveyance; and
(b) ‘registrable’ and ‘registration’ have the meanings respectively assigned to those expressions by section 1(3) of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 (c.33).
5 Form of application for recording deed in Register of Sasines
(1) Any application for the recording of a deed in the Register of Sasines shall be made by, or on behalf of, the person in whose favour the deed is granted; and it shall not be necessary to endorse on any deed a warrant of registration.
(2) The Scottish Ministers may, after consultation with the Lord President of the Court of Session, make rules—
(a) prescribing the form to be used for the purposes of subsection (1) above; and
(b) regulating the procedure relating to applications for recording.
6 Deduction of title for unregistered land etc.
In respect of any land—
(a) a real right in which has never been registered in the Land Register of Scotland; and
(b) title to which has never been constituted by the recording of a deed in the Register of Sasines,
title may be deduced from any person having ownership of the land.
Part 3
Feuduties
Extinction of feuduties
7 Extinction on appointed day
Without prejudice to section 13 of this Act, any feuduty which has not been extinguished before the appointed day is extinguished on that day; and accordingly no payment shall be exigible, in respect of feuduty, for that day or for any period after that day.
8 Requiring compensatory payment
(1) Where a feuduty is extinguished by section 7 of this Act, the person who was the superior in relation to the feu (that person being in the following provisions of this Part of this Act referred to as the ‘former superior’) may, within two years after the appointed day, duly serve on the person who was the vassal in relation to the feu (that person being in those provisions referred to as the ‘former vassal’) notice requiring that a payment specified in the notice (being a payment calculated in accordance with section 9 of this Act) be made to him by the former vassal; and any such payment is referred to in this Act as a ‘compensatory payment’.
(2) In its application to a feuduty which was, at extinction, a cumulo feuduty, subsection (1) above shall be construed as relating to separate notice being duly served on each former vassal from whom payment is sought; and in that application, notice under that subsection shall be in (or as nearly as may be in) the form, with its Appendix, contained in schedule 1 to this Act.
(3) Except in the application mentioned in subsection (2) above, notice under subsection (1) above shall be in (or as nearly as may be in) the form contained in schedule 2 to this Act.
(4) To any notice served under subsection (1) above shall be attached a copy of the explanatory note which immediately follows, as the case may be—
(a) the Appendix to the form in schedule 1; or
(b) the form in schedule 2,
to this Act.
(5) Subject to section 10 of this Act, if subsections (1) to (4) above are complied with, then within 56 days after due service on him a former vassal shall make the compensatory payment.
(6) The reference in subsection (1) above to a notice being duly served shall be construed in accordance with section 11 of this Act.
9 Calculation of amount of compensatory payment
(1) In calculating the compensatory payment in respect of which notice may be served under section 8(1) of this Act, there shall first be determined the sum of money which would, if invested in two and a half per cent. Consolidated Stock at the middle market price at the close of business last preceding the appointed day, produce an annual sum equal to the feuduty.
(2) Unless the feuduty was, at extinction, a cumulo feuduty the sum so determined shall be the compensatory payment.
(3) If the feuduty was, at extinction, a cumulo feuduty the former superior shall, after determining that sum, allocate it among the former vassals in such proportions as are reasonable in all the circumstances; and an amount which is so allocated to a former vassal shall be the compensatory payment for that former vassal.
(4) If the feuduty was, at extinction, a cumulo feuduty wholly or partly apportioned among the former vassals, then for the purposes of subsection (3) above the proportions of an allocation shall be presumed reasonable in so far as they accord with that apportionment.
10 Making compensatory payment by instalments
(1) Where notice under subsection (1) of section 8 of this Act requires from a former vassal a compensatory payment of not less than 50, the former superior shall serve with it a filled out document (in this section referred to as an ‘instalment document’), in (or as nearly as may be in) the form contained in schedule 3 to this Act, for signature and dating by the former vassal (there being...
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