Guide
Conveyancing in Scotland: a different system, not a variation
Updated
Scotland is not England with different words. The point at which you are committed, the way offers are made and the tax you pay are all different, and each of the three catches people who have bought before.
Missives, not exchange
A Scottish purchase concludes through missives, an exchange of formal letters between the solicitors, and the contract becomes binding when the missives are concluded. There is no separate exchange of contracts in the English sense.
The practical consequence is that commitment arrives earlier in the process than an English buyer expects, so surveys, funding and title questions have to be resolved before the offer rather than after it.
The solicitor makes the offer
In Scotland the solicitor is commonly involved in making the offer itself, rather than being instructed once a price has been agreed with an agent.
That means you choose a solicitor earlier, and it means the offer is a legal document with conditions in it from the start rather than a number passed between agents.
A different tax and a different registry
Scottish residential purchases pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, not stamp duty, and it has its own bands and its own additional dwelling supplement. The stamp duty figures on this site do not apply to a Scottish transaction.
Registration is with Registers of Scotland rather than HM Land Registry, on its own fee scale.
Different regulator, different ombudsman
Scottish solicitors are regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, and complaints go to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission rather than to the Legal Ombudsman.
The SRA Transparency Rules do not apply, so the published-price advantage that makes English firms comparable is not there. Ask for the same breakdown anyway: total fee, VAT, outlays itemised, and the stages. A firm that will not provide it in writing has answered a different question.