About the Register of Deeds
The Register of Deeds contains copies of original documents, most commonly, wills, leases and minutes of agreement.
If you are looking for a will, read our guide on ordering a copy first.
Registering a document in the Register of Deed is voluntary. There’s no legal requirement to register deeds other than in a small number of specific situations (such as Pension Sharing Agreements and Parental Rights and Responsibilities Agreements).
Deeds can be registered for the following purposes:
- preservation
- for execution (for more information on what this term means, read our Register of Deeds guidance)
Date ranges we can search
We can search the Register of Deeds from 15 March 1993 onwards. To search deeds before 15 March 1993, contact the National Records of Scotland.
We can supply deeds registered in the Register of Deeds from 1 Sep 2006 onwards. To order deeds before this date, contact the National Records of Scotland.
Searching and ordering from the Register of Deeds
How you search or order from the Register of Deeds depends on what information you have.
If you do not know the deed number
If you do not have the deed number, we can conduct a search to find out if the deed was recorded and get the deed number.
To search the Register of Deeds, you’ll need to provide the following information:
- deed type
- named parties (these are the names of the people in the deed)
- date range or date of registration
We charge £25 + VAT per name search to provide you with the results, and you must agree to payment before we send you the results.
Note that the fee applies even if your search returns no results. This fee does not include a copy deed.
After you have requested a search
We will conduct the search based on the information you provided.
We will then generate a payment link and email it to you.
Once you have paid to conduct a search, we will send you the search results to view within 2 to 5 days.
Request a search of the Register of Deeds on ScotLIS
If you already have the deed number, you can order a copy using the deed request form.
After you get your search results
If the deed you are looking for is on the list of search results, you can use the deed number to order a copy via the deed request form.
You will need to select:
- copy type (plain or extract – extracts are usually used for court purposes)
- deed type
- deed number
- deed registration date (optional)
You will then agree to the payment.
After you have made your order
- You will receive an email confirming that we’ve received your order.
- We will then review your request.
- You will then receive an email with a link to pay an invoice. You must pay the invoice before we can provide you with the copy deeds.
- Once we have received your payment, we will issue your document in PDF format via email.