Scots Property Law

Scots property law governs the rules of property in Scotland. A fundamental distinction in Scots law is between heritable and moveable property. Heritable property includes land and buildings, whereas moveable property includes title to property which actually physically moves, which would normally passes only on delivery. Moveable rights also include those to intellectual property, such as patents, trade marks and copyrights. Agreement on an offer for property purchase is a legally binding contract, resulting in a system of conveyancing where buyers get their survey done before making a bid to the seller's solicitor, and after a closing date for bids the seller's acceptance is binding on both parties, preventing gazumping. In recent times sales of house by way of offering to sell to the first party to make an unconditional offer of a fixed price has eroded the traditional offers over system. It is important historically because the feu was first created in Scotland, which is an antecedent of the fee system, used in conveyancing throughout the common law system.