Clarify Your Requirements To Avoid Turbulence

Any contract for the sale of land or for the grant of a lease for more than a year must, under the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995, be in writing and signed by the granter.

This would seem to be relatively straightforward. However, what kind of writing effectively creates a contract? If there is no contract in writing creating a lease for more than a year, a lease for less than 12 months may be unintentionally created.

Before the Act, with a few exceptions, contracts for the sale and lease of land had to be in formal writing with conditions about the mode of signature. However, we now run the risk that informal letters exchanged between parties containing the basic terms of the contract will be sufficient to create a lease or sale agreement. It has become common practice to include wording making it clear that the agreement is still subject to a formal contract.