Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Act 2023

Section 54 – Acquisition in good faith for personal, domestic or household purposes

247. This section protects an individual who acquires corporeal property for private or related purposes.

248. Subsection (1) sets out that an individual who acquires encumbered property without the consent of the secured creditor having been obtained will acquire the property unencumbered if certain conditions are met:

(a)

the property must be wholly or mainly acquired for personal, domestic or household purposes (business purchasers are not protected),

(b)

the person must give value for the property acquired, which will normally mean adequate monetary value (i.e. payment of a purchase price) but also covers by means, say, of exchanging other property, and

(c)

the acquirer must be in good faith.

249. Subsection (2) makes it clear that the acquirer is not to be deemed to have constructive knowledge of a statutory pledge for the purposes of this section merely because it is registered. It follows that the individual does not need to search the Register of Statutory Pledges before acquiring the property.

250. Subsection (3) allows the Scottish Ministers to introduce a further rule into subsection (1) that the value of the property at the time of acquisition must not exceed a specified amount, and then to vary that amount from time to time.