Registers Direct No More

United KingdomScotland

Registers of Scotland will finally shut down its legacy information service, Registers Direct, at 9pm on Friday 30 November. So, from then on online searches of the Scottish property registers will need to be done via Registers new information service, Scotlis.

Registers launched Scotlis in October of last year and have been continuing to develop it since. According to Registers, Scotlis is a key component of their digital transformation and its aim is to make it easier for professionals and members of the public to access land and property data for Scotland. While Registers Direct was a useful tool for solicitors and other property professionals, it was not accessible by the public and its search functions were limited. It was easy to obtain a title sheet (albeit in a somewhat fragmented fashion) from Registers Direct if you knew the title number for a property or had a street name and number. However, trying to identify titles for more rural properties was not so easy with the index map feature being fairly rudimentary. Registers Direct also allowed solicitors to search Sasine search sheets but again in a fragmented fashion as each page of the search sheet had to be downloaded separately – a time consuming task more often than not! There was also the issue of being charged more than once to view the same information if you accidentally shut down your browser or your session timed.

There have of course been a number of changes to registration practice in recent years and unfortunately not all of them have immediately brought the benefits promised, or have brought new problems with the benefits! However, the majority opinion is that Scotlis is an improvement on what went before and does actually make it easier to obtain title information in Scotland. Some of the key benefits (for solicitors) include:

  1. A new, interactive map based on the OS which makes it easier to check the boundaries of a land registered property and to identify surrounding title numbers – which is particularly helpful for rural properties with no address.
  2. Improved search functions – including the ability to search the interactive map by grid reference.
  3. The ability to mail complete title sheets to yourself in one click as opposed to downloading then emailing separate sections.
  4. The ability to download whole search sheets rather than sheet by sheet.
  5. The inclusion of other registers to search, such as the Register of Inhibitions and the Crofting Register.

Registers are continuing to look for ways to expand and improve Scotlis, with the intention that it will eventually combine with other public registers.

The Registers of Scotland website contains lots of useful information to help users get the most out of Scotlis, including top tips and reviews from other users. Searching Scotlis on the Registers blog (insideros.blog) brings up lots of useful information.