Mapping innovation transforms land registration in Scotland

Known as Voluntary Registration, the process is being promoted by the Registers of Scotland as part of move to introduce a new map-based register of land ownership.

The innovation, developed by thinkWhere and powered by cloud-based GIS solution groundMapper, powers the Site Assembly Solution (SAS) run by conveyancing searches provider Millar & Bryce.

SAS gives solicitors easy access to information used to prepare an application for voluntary registration and is the first fully online comprehensive land search package for the commercial sector.

“Our Site Assembly Solution provides all the information needed for a swift, fuss-free, voluntary registration that can even be managed remotely”, said Gary Donaldson, head of product at Millar & Bryce. “SAS can be used to map the historic progress of an estate or holding, including additions and alienations, to definitively establish current boundaries and legal title.”

In 1617 Scotland established, what is now, the world’s oldest public property register; the Sasine Register.

Continuing for 400 years the list of recorded deeds was significant in forming the basis of a transparent registration system. In 1979 a new Land Register was established, introducing a map-based register of land ownership designed to provide clearer, easier to understand particulars of the property and its ownership, backed by a state guarantee, providing protection to owners and prospective purchasers and lenders.

However, despite existing for nearly 40 years, only around 30 per cent of Scotland’s land mass is currently registered. So in 2014 the Keeper of the Register of Scotland was invited by Scottish Ministers to complete the Land Register by 2024 with all public land to be registered by 2019.

Supplied with a complete range of Ordnance Survey digital map backgrounds, groundMapper gives users of SAS access to other essential layers of information including Sasine search sheets, Scottish Natural Heritage classifications, World Heritage Sites and listed buildings. Legal documents and environmental reports, public rights of way and commercial utility asset records can also be added. A single-view report is then produced which can be submitted to the Registers of Scotland to support an application for voluntary registration.