documents referred to in that title sheet or which have induced entries on the title sheet or caused amendments to be made to existing entries. By section 6(5) the Keeper is required to issue, to any person who applies, a copy, known as an ‘office copy’, of any title sheet, or part thereof (for example, the charges or burdens section) or of any document referred to therein. The affixation of the Agency’s seal, without any signature, constitutes proper authentication of an office copy. Evidential status 5.87 An office copy enjoys privileged evidential status. Section 6(5) declares that its contents shall be accepted for all purposes as sufficient evidence of the contents of the original. Consequently, an office copy does not require any other form of certification by the Keeper, nor, in any court proceedings, does it require the appearance of a member of the Keeper’s staff, to attest to its status. To reinforce this point office copies now include the undernoted certificate: ‘This office copy has been issued in terms of section 6(5) of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979,  which  provides  that  it  shall  be  accepted  for  all  purposes  as  sufficient  evidence  of  the contents of the original.’ An office copy, because of its privileged evidential status, is of considerable use with development titles. It can be used to expedite the progress of simultaneous transactions where, if there were only one land certificate available, purchasers would be delayed in their examination of title. Factors governing issue of office copy 5.88 The practical implications of section 6(5) are that the Keeper can only issue an office copy of a deed  or  document  if  that  deed  or  document  has  been  referred  to  in  the  title  sheet.  The  Keeper’s position is that an office copy of any other deed or document cannot be issued even if that deed or document forms part of an application for registration and has been microfilmed. This view appears to be given credence by the opinion of the Lord President in the case of Short’s Trustee v Keeper of the Registers of Scotland²⁸ wherein he states that ‘there is an important difference ... as to the amount of information to which a person dealing on the faith of the two registers (the Land Register and the Register of Sasines) has access. Provision is made by section 6(5) of the 1979 Act for the issuing by the Keeper to any person applying of a copy of the title sheet or of any document referred to in a title sheet on the Land Register. But there is no provision enabling a party  to  obtain  access  to  any  of  the  deeds  which  would  have  been required to be searched had they been registered in the Sasine Register’ It follows that the Keeper cannot normally issue an office copy of a deed inducing an entry in, say, the property or proprietorship section of the title sheet, because the entry merely reflects the effect of the deed  as  distinct  from  referring  to  it.  Exceptionally,  the  deed  may  be  specifically  referred  to  in,  for example, an exclusion of indemnity, or elsewhere in the title sheet as in the case of a feu disposition referred to for burdens in the burdens section. If that is the case, it can then be copied. It should be noted that when a deed or document that has been the subject of an application for registration but which does not appear on a title sheet is required by in connection with a court action, the Keeper will  likely  co-operate  in  releasing  the  document  without  the  need  for  a  specific  commission  and diligence of the document.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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