Property registration is multifaceted and represents one of our core services at Registers of Scotland (RoS), a non-ministerial government department responsible for compiling and maintaining 20 registers relating to land and property ownership in Scotland. One of the key areas of the registration process is the discharge of standard securities.

How DDS makes the discharge process quicker and more efficient

The Digital Discharge Service (DDS) centralises all steps involved in discharging securities to create a quicker, more straightforward process that reduces both cost and risk for the customer.

Previously discharging securities was predominantly a paper-based process that involved a number of different steps carried out by the solicitor, lender and RoS in different places.

Digitising the process enabled RoS to build enhanced validation rules that drastically reduced the potential for error, avoiding the application being rejected. Typically, the time between the solicitor drafting a paper discharge and submitting it to RoS for registration is around two weeks. The DDS allows the solicitor to create a discharge request to the lender in less than a minute, and it takes under three minutes for the lender to sign and submit the discharge to RoS. This has also resulted in significantly reduced turnaround times for RoS - cutting down the average completion time from 48 hours to 24 hours. Significantly for lenders, the service utilises the most secure digital signing solution on the market, significantly reducing the risk of fraudulent submissions.

We receive approximately 100,000 discharge applications per year, of which 33 per cent are processed via DDS. The figure is increasing month-on-month, and we project it will continue to grow as more lenders take advantage of the benefits the service brings.

Continuous improvement and working with customers

We?ve continued to develop the service since launch, adding new features based on customer feedback to make the DDS user journey as effective as possible. We?ve also worked closely with both solicitor and lender organisations to adopt DDS and bring as many users on board as possible.

Our customer engagement efforts have been met with positive results - 85 per cent of solicitors are on board, as well as 52 per cent of the market share of lenders, including Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group, and Nationwide Building Society.

To learn more about DDS or to arrange a demo, please contact Ray Matheson: ray.matheson@ros.gov.uk

Related Event

Annual Scotland Mortgage Lunch ? 8 March 2018 - Save the date
Save the date for the UK Finance Annual Scotland mortgage lunch which returns on Friday 8th March 2019. A confirmed fixture in the Scottish lending calendar the 2019 lunch will see it return to the stunning Balmoral Hotel in central Edinburgh. This event is expected to bring over 200 members of the Scottish lending community together for an afternoon of first-class industry networking as well as to enjoy some fantastic food. Bookings will be available shortly however, you can register your interest to receive an alert as soon as tickets are available here.