In this second episode in our series celebrating a very special year for Millar & Bryce, Richard Hepburn, Director, Scotland discusses some of the big themes that emerged from our Property Excellence Past Present & Future Conference, to mark the firm’s 150th Anniversary, and how they relate to Millar and Bryce’s continued success in the marketplace.

Read the full transcript of Millar & Bryce at 150: Podcast Special below or listen to the episode on our Spotify channel, Landmark Talks Property. 

(Podcast Host) David Lee (00:05)
This is the second episode in a series celebrating a very special year for Millar & Bryce, which is part of Landmark Information Group. We’re recording this soon after a conference to mark the firm’s 150th anniversary, Property Excellence, Past, Present and Future. I’m David Lee and I hosted the Millar & Bryce Conference and I’m your podcast presenter today.

(Managing Director, Millar & Bryce) Richard Hepburn (00:30)
and I’m Richard Hepburn, Millar & Bryce’s Scotland Director.

David Lee (00:34)
So today we’re discussing some of the big themes that emerged from the conference and how they relate to Millar and Bryce’s continued success in the marketplace. Richard, conferences are always a long time in the making, so were you happy that the event captured the essence of Millar and Bryce and lived up to its title of property excellence, past, present and future?

Richard Hepburn (00:58)
Hi David and good to pick up from where we left off in podcast one. The original premise of the conference was looking back, stroke, looking forwards. So for sure, reflecting on the Millar and Bryce business over the past 150 years, while also showcasing our direction of travel within a progressive technology driven group like Landmark, that’s finding solutions for land and property set to the future is what it was all about.

David Lee (01:27)
Great, and thanks Richard. And we’re not reviewing the conference, we’re not marking the speakers out of 10, particularly yourself Richard, of course, but instead we’re trying to pick out some key themes and reflecting upon them. So Richard, you talked to the conference about the foundational principles of Millar and Bryce that have been a golden thread to its long history. Can you tell (remind us) and tell listeners who weren’t at the conference what those foundational principles are?

Richard Hepburn (01:58)
David, we looked at what created the platform for the business to flourish. So although this isn’t an exhaustive list, it’s a combination of a few key elements working together, which I think have achieved that longevity and position as well for the future. So just picking up on a few of the key themes we looked at, clearly vision and leadership is particularly important and I think what came through strongly was the legacy of Moir Bryce who was the original founder, who established some search industry fundamentals which really created the industry that we work in today, not just Millar and Bryce. I certainly think part of his energy and direction flows through to a second theme, and that was around influencing and networking, where he established principles with the legal profession in Scotland, which remain intact to today.

We then went on, I think, to look at culture, another key element, and a workplace which sets challenges, but also allows a bit of freedom for fun outside work. That came through in lot of the research we did. Resilience and reinvention. I mean, I think that’s probably a pretty obvious one, is if we stayed running the same business processes from 1875 I don’t think we’d last very long in 2025. Then finally, financial stability and management probably goes without saying as well. I think we kind of recognise that it’s important to have shareholders who see the need to reinvest in a business to help it to undergo that innovation.

David Lee (03:39)
Great, thanks Richard and we’ll pick up on some of those points as we continue our discussion and again, you said at the conference when you were considering coming to Millar & Bryce that it had been described by somebody as a bit of a dusty old business but you found something quite different when you arrived at the firm and in terms of that vision and leadership, what did you find and what have you brought in your tenure as Scotland Director?

Richard Hepburn (04:08)
So I think saying that when a business is 150 years old, I’m really conscious that I’ve only been here eight years and I’m really the custodian of a legacy for a period in time. So for me it’s about preserving the best of what’s gone before but also recognising the need to identify and execute on change where that’s needed which is really what goes to create a sustainable future. So I’d say that over Millar & Bryce’s 150 years, there have been a number of inflection points and we talked about these in the conference, some driven by external economic factors, wars for example, and from things like changes in technology. I’d say my contribution if I was putting that on my tombstone would be really seeing the virtual elimination of paper from our core production processes and that really came on the back of investment from Landmark which brought in cloud-based technologies. And that’s really what helped us get through COVID and allowed us to move to a virtual working model, I don’t know what we’d been like with all the paper we’d had in 2017.

David Lee (05:19)
Thanks Richard and to pick up on another point, another of those foundational principles, influence and network, why is that so important?

Richard Hepburn (05:29)
So I’m going to pick up on something that my colleague Lorna Kerr mentioned at the conference in her section and that’s really the vital role played by trusted partnerships and why that influence and network within the property world really has been a foundation for Millar & Bryce throughout its history. And I think the conference showed that that still exists. Clients were at the conference who’d worked with Millar & Bryce for 20, 30, 40 years and more. And we know we’ve got some that have been with us for the entire 150-year journey.

David Lee (06:03)
I guess quite closely linked to that, Richard, is this idea of culture because people don’t do business with firms who haven’t got their own internal culture right. So what is it that makes Millar and Bryce what it is today in 2025, 150 years on, in terms of its culture and in terms of its values?

Richard Hepburn (06:23)
I think without a doubt some of that goes back to Moir Bryce again and the standards and approach to work he brought but also what he did outside work which I think came through in some of the things we read about how involved people were in other activities. I think also the involvement of the Bryce family generally for more than the first hundred of our 150 years reinforced that as well. But I think one of the key things we talked about at the conference was this importance of multi-generational staff passing on knowledge and expertise and I think that’s where longevity of staff really counts. So we’ve still got a number of 40-year veterans in the business today and I think, you know, we talked to the conference about from a customer point of view, we’ve got 550 years of combined Sasine search experience and that’s unmatched in the market and that’s why we really do remain a trusted partner for many customers. So I do think that despite changes of ownership and now being part of a larger group, that there’s still a family business feel which has been there from the start.

David Lee (07:35)
And you touched on that sort of periods of change in ownership. And I think another foundational principle is this financial stability and management and that persisted for a very long time in Millar and Bryce’s history with that strong family thread running through. But then there was a challenging period when it was seen as a little bit of a cash cow by its owners and the pension funds were depleted. But now it’s back in that wider Landmark Information Group cutting across the whole property sector, stability seems to be back.

Richard Hepburn (08:08)
Yeah, I mean, we definitely had a period after the end of family ownership when essentially financial investors took control of the business and really showed by their inaction the sort of importance that having owners who are committed to what the business does is more important really than the profits it generates. So I think the acquisition by Landmark in itself, already a group which understood property lawyers and their challenges, it really did help bring Millar & Bryce back on track. I think their vision for a digitally enabled future does bring opportunity for our business in Scotland to take the best of solutions designed for the market south of the border and adapt them for the nuances of our situation up here.

David Lee (08:57)
Okay, and the foundation stone I’m going to come to last Richard deliberately is one that you said was maybe a bit of a given, but it’s so important. It’s that resilience and reinvention, the ability to change with the times. And you described how Millar and Bryce has always been at the front of technological changes. Tell us how that’s manifested itself in its history.

Richard Hepburn (09:19)
Okay, well we know from our research that Millar & Bryce was the first firm of its kind to have a telephone in 1905, the first to have a fax machine and similarly with the introduction of typewriters and word processors when they became available. But more recently, the use of robotic processing technologies I think has really helped improve workflows and customer experience and allows searchers really to deploy their skills more in analysis and investigation rather than in some of the more mundane report production tasks. But now as we look ahead and with the support of skilled data analytics experts in Landmark, we’re really examining where and how the use of AI can benefit our business. So it is important to embrace change. I think we’ve got an important warning or, I guess, watch word from Chris Loring of Landmark at the conference really to mind the gap between the data and the delivery. It’s great to innovate and make progress constantly, but make sure the underlying data is sound and trusted and that your decisions are good. That’s what good business practice and resilience is all about.

David Lee (10:31)
Okay, and coming back to that great double actor, Richard, Gary Donaldson and Lorna Kerr, they talked at the conference about serving clients with honesty, authenticity and technology. And Lorna talked specifically as you’ve touched on about blending those trusted partnerships with end-to-end digital systems. So why are those trusted partnerships and those digital systems both so important, both individually and together?

Richard Hepburn (11:00)
Gary and Lorna were a great double act at the conference and I think what they emphasised again was that it’s vital to get that balance between the technology and the people. And that’s something Millar & Bryce has always done well as we noted earlier. As Yayoi Teramoto, whose Landmark’s Data Scientist said at the conference, Landmark Information Group is fully embracing AI, but only where it can deliver clear benefits in the process. It can’t be used as a blunt instrument. And as Yayoi clearly said, you still need the human in the loop.

David Lee (11:36)
Okay, thanks, Richard. we’ll come back to that technology and people theme later, sticking with AI for now, William Ullstein, the CEO of polling organisation, YouGov, gave a tremendous presentation at the conference, really fascinating use of real life data from real life people. And he had some interesting things to say about the property buyers of the future, especially around technology and AI.

Richard Hepburn (12:01)
Yes, as you might expect, those born after 1997 or Gen Zs were born into and have grown up with technology as a fundamental part of their life, the so-called digital natives. So Gen Z really are more open to AI than older generations. And as Will said, 50 % are saying they’re using AI chatbots every week. 83 % of 18 to 24-year-olds have used a chatbot compared to 31% of 50- to 64-year-olds and only 19 % over 65. So yes, big changes are happening.

David Lee (12:39)
What Will also said, Richard, which was also very interesting, is that it’s a more nuanced picture even among the younger generation when it comes to using AI for legal advice.

Richard Hepburn (12:50)
Yes, I mean his polling data showed that just 18 % of 18- to 24-year-olds think it was a good idea to use AI for legal advice, with 54 % saying it was a bad idea and 28 % who didn’t know. I do though think there’s something maybe a bit reassuring in that. So when it comes to one of the bigger decisions in life, like buying a house, younger people still want advice from someone who looks bit like their mum or dad rather than trusting the technology. And one really surprising finding was that while 20% of all ages trust AI now, this falls to 17% trusting future uses of AI. Again, it’s all coming back to using AI as a tool and keeping the human in the loop.

David Lee (13:44)
And what else did Will tell us Richard about that property buyer of the future?

Richard Hepburn (13:50)
Well, they definitely see climate change as the biggest global threat and really care about their environment and that came through really strongly. Leading on from that, they want to do business with organisations who share those values and I think that’s a key message for those setting standards, and particularly in Scotland, where consumers don’t routinely have the same diligence around climate, flood, for example, as exists in England even today.

So what was also clear though was that they want technology to be at the heart of the property buying experience.

David Lee (14:28)
So does that mean Richard that properties will be sold entirely digitally in future do you think? Right from the viewings at the beginning to signing off at the end?

Richard Hepburn (14:38)
Well, I think I would think that that’s a while away and I think that definitely came through from our panel session at the conference. We heard about people viewing homes via high quality video and use of things like immersive headshot technology. Alan Cumming of Retti, one of the panellists thought this would just help reduce the number of interested parties and that serious buyers would still view in person and interestingly, still pick the phone up to talk to someone about it. Lindsay Gowans from DHKK surveyors agreed with Alan and really confirmed that in her opinion you had to see and feel a house to value and market it accurately. Then finally, Jill Andrew from Connell & Connell, a Conveyancer, still thinks the human touch matters massively in an industry where property purchase and sales are often caught up in highly emotional life events; couples moving in together, houses being sold if parents move in to care or die. She said this really requires human interaction. So it was really touching to see how our property panel of Alan, Lindsay and Jill were also motivated by this idea of giving clients a really personalised and human experience.

David Lee (15:59)
Absolutely. And again, Richard, that brings us back to that balance of technology advancement and human connection, because there was a little bit of frustration with the slow pace of technology in the property sector that was voiced at the conference.

Richard Hepburn (16:14)
Yeah, that’s very much so. I mean, Ann Stewart, one of our other presenters at the conference, bemoaned the slow pace of adoption of e-signatures and digital identities and really did implore everybody to move much faster. Alan Cumming again said that we had to cut out duplication in areas like Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering checks, very often these have to be done several times and the client ends up paying much more because the information cannot be shared. There really has to be a place where that information can go and estate agents, conveyors, surveyors and lenders can all access it securely.

David Lee (16:56)
Indeed, really kind of rich discussions at the conference, Richard. So how would you sum it up and what it says about the place of Millar and Bryce in the market in 2025, 150 years after the firm was born?

Richard Hepburn (17:14)
It was a fantastic day and I think really I’d come back to in summary those foundation stones, but especially to those trusted partnerships and that ability to innovate and change over time. That brings resilience and reinvention. We’ve managed to survive and thrive for 150 years and with the support of Landmark I’m confident we can continue to reinvent ourselves successfully with that combination of trusted human partnerships and constant technological innovation.

Millar & Bryce, the experts in property searches, title information, conveyancing searches and land referencing right across Scotland, is delighted to announce their brand identity refresh, as part of the firm’s 150th anniversary, embedded further into the forward-looking, technology-driven Group, Landmark, leading the way in Proptech.

The refreshed identity was unveiled last week as Millar & Bryce marked the 150th anniversary with their Scotland Conference – Property Excellence, Past, Present & Future – a fascinating exploration into historic events, a celebration of heritage and valuable insights shared from industry experts across Scotland’s property sector. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

The conference reflected the Millar & Bryce business over the past 150 years, its legacy and rich heritage, resilience and reinvention that have contributed to the firm’s longevity and a trusted name in the Scottish property market. 

Millar & Bryce welcomed industry leaders from across the Scotland property market and wider Landmark Group to share their insights into a broad range of topics from advancing into digital transactions, sustainability initiatives, to the emergence of tech and AI. William Ullstein the CEO of polling organisation YouGov, delivered the keynote, delving into the property buyers of the future and whilst the data indicated significant changes happening in the market, reassuringly the importance of maintaining a human element rather than trusting the technology shone through, with only 18% of 18-24 year olds thinking it was a good idea to use AI for legal advice. 

The Next 150 Years

Back in 2017 when Richard Hepburn was appointed Managing Director, Millar & Bryce had an average length of service in the business of 21 years with several 40+ year seasoned experts. Now approaching eight years in his role, preserving the 150th legacy and the best of what’s gone before whilst identifying and execute on change to create a sustainable future, will be pivotal for future success.

Richard Hepburn comments, “In our 150th year we were keen to present a fresh, new image for Millar & Bryce, aligning more with our parent, Landmark Information Group, and reflecting the digital future which we have embarked on as a Group.  The 150-year legacy of the Millar & Bryce business is very much valued and respected by Landmark, and bringing together our trusted skills and expertise with the vision of Landmark positions us as a business which can continue to provide relevant solutions for the land and property sector in Scotland”.

While standard searches remain the foundation of Scottish conveyancing , the landscape of additional searches is changing. Where essentials like legal reports and property enquiry certificates provide crucial information for every transaction, specialised property searches in Scotland’s property transactions are increasingly the realm of standard practice – and conveyancers today need to be proficient in the expanding types of specialised searches.

Community interest checks

One of the biggest changes to specialised searches is the increased need to check the Register of Community Interests in Land (RCIL) and Register of Applications by Community Bodies to Buy Land. In 2016, the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act extended the Community Right to Buy across the entire country, to cover urban and rural properties alike and, in 2018, added the option for communities to register interest in purchasing abandoned, neglected or detrimental land as well.

These registers record community bodies’ interests in buying property or land, and when one on the register goes on the market, it activates that group’s right of first refusal. Adding to the precariousness of these registers, landowners aren’t always made aware when such interests are registered against their property. Purchasers naturally want to know local communities do not have their eyes on the property they intend to buy, so a check of both registers is now, in Scotland’s countryside and cities, a completion requirement.

Coal mining reports

Scotland’s deep-mining industry ended in 2002 when Longannet in Fife closed. But mining’s legacy continues to influence property transactions – after all, coal mining affected swathes of Scotland, so coal mining reports are important for properties in or near former mining areas.

These reports provide crucial details about mining activity and highlight any geological weaknesses or subsidence claims – information that could significantly affect a property’s value and insurability.

A coal mining report also provides information on:

• mine entries within 20 metres of a property’s boundaries
• gas emissions from coal mines
• other coal mining hazards reported in the area
• plans for future coal mining in the area

In particularly sensitive cases, enhanced ground stability reports offer additional expert interpretation on subsidence risks.

Environmental considerations

Once on the periphery of property transactions, environmental concerns are now very much forward into buyers’ minds. Environmental reports now offer sophisticated risk assessments based on a property’s history, highlighting contamination risks along with other environmental factors, like flooding, ground stability, radon levels and nearby energy or infrastructure projects.

Most environmental reports are designed to be practical and easy for the buyers to understand. They are marked with clear passed or referred status to highlight potential issues and also share valuable professional opinions and recommendations to guide both practitioners and clients.

Other specialised searches worth considering

Depending on a property’s location and characteristics, several other specialised searches might be warranted:

You can consult the Register of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) when there could be protected plants, animals, habitats, or geological feature on a property – it reveals whether a property is affected and what specific restrictions apply.

If there is a question over rights of way, a specialised Scotways search can identify whether a property is affected by public access rights that might impact its use or value.

For properties with potential historical significance, checking listed building status through Pastmap provides information beyond what appears in standard property enquiry certificates and also covers scheduled monuments and other heritage designations.

The Forestry Commission has interactive mapping tools to aid investigations of the Commission’s schemes or dedication agreements, though interpreting the implications still requires professional judgement.

Recent legislation has introduced further requirements to confirm that status of parties involved in a property transaction. Depending on the nature of the transaction, searches in the Register of Overseas Entities or the register of Controlling Interests in Land may be required.

The expansion of specialised searches reflects the increasing complexity of property rights and regulations in Scotland. While this may seem to add layers to the conveyancing process, these searches ultimately protect all parties involved in transactions.

For conveyancers, the challenge lies in knowing which specialised searches are truly necessary for each transaction while avoiding unnecessary costs for clients. To achieve this, your firm needs to stay up to date with evolving requirements and exercise sound professional judgement based on each property’s unique circumstances. As the landscape continues to evolve, incorporating these specialised searches thoughtfully into practice helps ensure we deliver the comprehensive due diligence clients expect and deserve.

Following feedback from customers, we are making a change to how we show outstanding Advance Notices (ANs) on our Legal Report Updates.

Our current practice is to show any AN on a Legal Report (LR) if the AN was registered or recorded in the period that LR covers. We apply the same principle for Legal Report Updates (LRU), so if an AN was submitted prior to the LRU it will have been shown on the original LR so we don’t currently show it on an update.

It’s not uncommon to get a follow up query if we haven’t shown an active AN on a LRU even if it has been shown on the original LR. We’d like to reduce this confusion, report the position more clearly and allow users to rely solely on the LRU without having to refer back to the original LR to see all outstanding ANs.

When will this change take effect?

Our change, which is effective in the next few weeks, relates to the LRU. We will continue to show ANs on a LR if they are registered or recorded in the period that LR covers, however when we provide an LRU, we will report from the date of the original LR for any changes to the title, additional deeds submitted etc (as we currently do), in addition we will show all outstanding ANs, including any that might have previously been shown on a LR.

This will provide a clearer current position and will also reduce the need to refer back to an original LR.

Property searches are a cornerstone of Scottish conveyancing. No property transaction can complete without searches of the Land Register, Register of Inhibitions, Companies House, even the outgoing Register of Sasines, until all Scottish property is registered on the Land Register. Since the 19th century, professional searchers have handled the technical heavy lifting, but conveyancers need to understand what’s needed – and why – to shape our daily practice. The reality is that thorough searches and enquiries protect both our clients and our firms.

In October 2024, the Economy and Fair Work Committee of the Scottish Parliament, who’s remit includes support for business, shared the news from the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland that in its “work towards Land Register completion […], our figure for total land mass coverage is now more than 95%.”

It sounds impressive, especially when you remember this ambitious project, which went live in 1979 as a consequence of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979, is navigating an entire nation away from a complex property ownership recording system – the Sasine Register – that’s been in place since 1617.

Nonetheless, this figure, like all statistics, needs context. To reach this figure, Registers of Scotland (ROS) calculated the total land mass coverage by adding

1. land in the Land Register (55%)
2. current casework in progress (6%)
3. data unlocked through Unlocking Sasines (34%)

When we take all this into consideration, the figures tell a more nuanced story and presents an interesting landscape for conveyancing professionals to navigate.

ROS is also using the Functional Completion approach, which focuses on properties most likely to transact, to pave a more efficient way of reporting the pathway to completing the register. Functional Completion of the Land Register (rather than actual completion) is seen by ROS as being delivered when most land and property that transacts regularly is on the Land Register. Properties unlikely to transact regularly include large estates and social housing. But, for now, land and properties that rarely or may never sell are excluded from the Functionally Complete calculations, which suggests the land in the Land Register could, in fact, be lower than 55%.

As conveyancers, in day-to-day practice, we should err more on the side of caution and recognise that only 55% of Scotland’s land mass is listed in the Land Register – still a notable achievement – and that we need to be alert to the challenge of at least 45% needing extra attention.

The reality is that while we move toward comprehensive land registration, many transactions will continue to involve unregistered land. This means firms still need expertise in sasine titles as well as Land Register proficiency. We are not yet in a position to pack away our sasine textbooks!

Managing the challenges

With 6% of Scotland’s property – that’s over 105,000 applications, some going back to 2018 – currently as open cases, there are a lot of people still waiting for the protection of the Keeper’s warranty, which they will only have when that registered title comes through.

ROS knows this is a challenge, so it created an expedited application process for pending transactions that meet certain criteria. This is keeping the industry moving in some cases, but not all applications meet the ROS criteria.

When properties move from the Sasine Register to the Land Register, there is no longer any theoretical need to check or rely on the Sasine Register. However there have been instances of standard securities not being discharged during first registration. The risk here is that once a property moves to the Land Register, the conveyancer’s normal practice is to check only the Legal Report over the Land Register title or pending applications, not the historical Sasine Register, so if a party in the first registration has failed to satisfy their obligation to discharge an outstanding security, then old securities might be lurking in the background, invisible to conveyancers working on later transactions.

As a business, you can take steps to avoid this. When dealing with first-registration properties, if the first registration is pending, you can request both a registered legal report and an unregistered legal report over the sasine title to build a complete picture. This dual-report approach means you can identify any historical securities that might otherwise be missed, ensuring cleaner titles and reducing risk for all parties involved. When presenting this option to clients, it’s worth explaining that the additional cost of an unregistered legal report is often justified by the security it provides and potential issues it can uncover.

Understanding Unlocked Sasines

The Scotlis Unlocked Sasines project (or indicative sasines) recognises the current low land register coverage and shows ROS’s commitment to try and introduce transparency of ownership from the, sometimes complex, sasine register – and it accounts for 34% of the quoted 95% Land Register completion. However, while the project “helps to indicate the likely ownership of areas not on the Land Register,” it does not provide absolute certainty of ownership. It can provide a useful bridge between the old and new systems and it certainly makes historical information more accessible. However, as a research tool, it is useful only as part of an overall toolkit for property investigation as you try to navigate those complex sasine search sheets. A final word of caution on indicative sasines, remember this is not a property register, it’s not a means to confirm ownership and boundaries with a 100% accuracy and it’s not a comprehensive source of all sasine titles.

How we can move closer to Land Register completion

While it continues the intimidating job of getting all of Scotland’s property listed in the Land Register, ROS is trying to support the nation’s conveyancers. And it welcomes all the support we in the industry can offer – with all of us working together, while recognising realistically the current coverage of the land register, we can get to completion much sooner. Its success will depend on maintaining a practical balance between embracing new efficiencies while retaining traditional expertise and authenticity and transparency in reporting against progress.

Understanding the current nuances helps you provide better service to clients while managing risk effectively. For now, maintaining capability in both registered and unregistered land remains key to successful conveyancing practice.

Sources

1. https://www.millar-bryce.com/news/hidden-consequences-of-backlog-of-ros-open-casework/
2. https://www.ros.gov.uk/performance/land-register-completion/land-mass-coverage-in-scotland
3. https://www.ros.gov.uk/performance/land-register-completion/unlocking-sasines
4. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/efw-30-10-2024
5. https://www.ros.gov.uk/performance/land-register-completion/functional-completion
6. https://www.ros.gov.uk/performance/land-register-completion/unlocking-sasines