Sections 38 to 44 - Continuing conditions on felling permission, felling directions and restocking directions: notices to comply, and registration of notices
62.Chapters 6 and 8 of Part 4 permit the Scottish Ministers to register certain notices.
63.Section 42 defines, for those purposes, the meaning of “register”. In respect of the notices specified at section 42(2), ‘register’ means register the information contained in a notice in the Land Register for Scotland or (as the case may be) record the notice in the General Register of Sasines. There is no statutory requirement on Scottish Ministers to register a notice. The effect of registration is that the obligations imposed by the notice may be accessed by any prospective new owner and are automatically passed to any future owners of the land to which they relate. The notices are:
a notice to comply (under section 38(2));
a notice of variation (under section 40(2));
a notice of discharge from compliance (under section 41(2));
a remedial notice (under section 56);
a notice of liability for expenses (under section 64); or
a notice of discharge of liability for expenses (under section 66(2)).
64.Section 43 makes provision about the description of land to be included in registrations of the notices set out at (a)–(f) of paragraph 64.
65.Section 38 makes provision for the Scottish Ministers to apply to register a notice to comply with a felling direction, a restocking direction or a continuing condition on felling permission (if the felling allowed by the permission has been carried out). Such a notice is called a “notice to comply”. An owner (including a new owner) who fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a registered notice to comply commits an offence punishable upon summary conviction by a fine of up to level 5 on the standard scale (section 39).
66.Section 40 makes provision enabling the variation of registered notices, defined at subsection (2) as a registered notice to comply or a registered remedial notice. In order to vary a registered notice—
the Scottish Ministers must agree to variation of the relevant registered notice;
all of the owners of the land must agree to variation of the relevant registered notice; and
the agreement must be in writing, and a notice (called a “notice of variation”) must be registered by the Scottish Ministers (section 40(3)). The variation only comes into effect once the notice of variation is registered (subsection (4)).
67.Section 41 requires the Scottish Ministers to apply to register a notice of discharge from compliance where—
they are satisfied that a relevant registered notice has been complied with; or
they have agreed in writing with an owner of land to which a relevant registered notice relates that the notice is to be discharged.
68.Where there is more than one owner of the land, agreement from all of the owners is not required: the Scottish Ministers may reach agreement to discharge the registered notice with any of the owners (section 41(1)(b)). The relevant registered notice is only discharged once the notice of discharge is registered.
69.Section 44 provides that the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland is not required to investigate or determine the accuracy of information contained in notices to comply, notices of variation, notices of discharge from compliance, remedial notices, notices of liability for expenses, or notices of discharge of liability for expenses.