Webinars – Discussion Paper on Heritable Securities: Non-monetary securities and sub-securities

The Scottish Law Commission is hosting webinars on 27 July and 17 August for anyone interested in reform of the law of heritable securities (mortgages).

We are currently conducting a major review of the law of heritable securities and have recently published a Discussion Paper exploring two complex issues arising in this area of law, namely heritable securities in respect of non-monetary obligations and sub-security arrangements.

The paper has 6 substantive chapters and includes 19 consultation questions. Key issues which the paper considers are:

• whether it should continue to be possible to grant a standard security in respect of a non-monetary obligation or whether a standard security should be capable of securing only damages for breach of non-monetary obligations;
• should there be a bespoke mechanism for protecting contractual obligation to transfer land such as option agreements. The paper proposes a new scheme in this regard and invites comment; and
• and whether it should continue to be possible to grant a standard security over a standard security.

Consultation on the paper is open until 29 September 2023.

At the webinars, Frankie McCarthy, the Commissioner leading the project, will go through the key issues and questions raised in the Discussion Paper. By the end of the session attendees will have a better understanding of the content of the Discussion Paper, specifically: 

• the key difficulties with the current law which prompt the need for reform;
• the preliminary proposals developed by the Commission to resolve those difficulties; and
• the questions on which the Commission is seeking views in order to produce final recommendations to Government for new legislation in in this important area.

The webinars will take place on:

• Thursday, 27 July 2023 between 1 and 2pm; and
• Thursday, 17 August 2023 between 5.30 and 6.30pm.

If you wish to attend either webinar please click the relevant link above to access the registration form. The webinars are free, but registration is required.

Please note that we intend to record the presentation parts of both webinars with a view to making a recording available on our YouTube channel at a later date. There will be an opportunity for questions after the presentation, but we do not intend to record that part of the seminar.

Each Webinar will cover substantially similar material, so there is no need to attend both.

Verifiable CPD: 1 hour