Variable Direct Debit Payment Scheme Application Information Registers Of

variable direct debit payment scheme application information registers of scotland customers can now make payments for land registratio

Variable Direct Debit Payment Scheme
Application Information
Registers of Scotland customers can now make payments for Land
Registration and Sasine Registration fees by variable Direct Debit.
Benefits of using this payment methodology are:
*
Reduction in number of returned applications
*
Improved statement information
*
Improved customer choice
*
Reduction in costs associated with back office processes
Guaranteed refund in the event of an error.
The Direct Debit Guarantee provides assurance to the Payer that if an
error is made by the bank, any money debited in error will be
immediately refunded.
Requirements
To use variable Direct Debit as a means of payment you must have –
*
Registered with the scheme
*
A valid bank or building society account from which a direct debit
payment can be collected
*
Sufficient funds available to the account when payment is due
Procedures
In order to collect Land Registration and Sasine Registration
pre-payment fees by Direct Debit, the enclosed bank direct debit
instruction must be completed and returned to Registers of Scotland
(please see Terms and Conditions Para 3).
On completion of the direct debit instruction, Registers of Scotland
will provide you with a new FAS account number to be used solely for
direct debit transactions. The existing non direct debit FAS numbers
can still be used for cheque payment transactions.
You should allow a minimum of 10 working days from submission of the
completed direct debit instruction before the service can be used.
The Law Society of Scotland have provided advice on the banking issues
in relation to the operation of variable Direct Debit and the enclosed
letter sets out their guidance.
For transactions where payment is to be made via Direct Debit,
pre-printed envelopes, marked ePayment, should be used to submit deeds
for registration. These can be obtained from:
Registers of Scotland
Customer Relations Department
Registers of Scotland Executive Agency
Erskine House
68 Queen Street
Edinburgh EH2 4NF
LP 50 Edinburgh 5,
DX 550906 Edinburgh 9
e-mail address- [email protected]
Your FAS number should be quoted on applications that you wish to pay
for by Direct Debit and in correspondence or telephone contact.
An e-mail address, accessed by all interested parties, must be set up
in order to receive statements issued by the Registers of Scotland.
This ensures that the statements will be available to all the
necessary personnel (please see Terms and Conditions Para 2).
Process
Day 1 - On receipt of deeds the application is taken on by Registers
of Scotland
Day 2 - The deed details are confirmed at Registers of Scotland
Day 3 - The statement covering Day 1 details is emailed to the
customer and the BACS request is sent to the customer’s bank.
Day 4 - Banks process the payment.
Day 5 – Funds leave customer’s account through the BACS system.
The customer reference for each deed will be detailed in the
statements to enable reconciliation. The references should be kept to
no more than 12 characters if possible.
An email will be issued every working day with the statement attached
and the relevant funds requested from the customer’s bank account. The
statement in the email will be in csv file format (comma-separated
values file format is supported by almost all spreadsheet software,
such as Excel).
If there are any queries regarding the statement, then the Registers
of Scotland will investigate these as quickly as possible and deal
with them as a separate process i.e. the total fee value of the
statement will be taken from the customer’s bank account and a refund
issued as necessary following investigation.
The customer will be contacted where there is a difference of more
than £200 in the quoted fee and the fee assessed by the Registers of
Scotland. For differences below £200 the Registers of Scotland will
apply their assessment of the fee (please see Terms and Conditions
Para 8).
Terms and Conditions
The Terms and Conditions that apply to customers operating the direct
debit service are enclosed herewith.
All enquiries in relation to the variable Direct Debit Payment Scheme
should be made to
Finance,
Meadowbank House
153 London Road,
Edinburgh EH8 7AU
LP 53, Edinburgh 5
DX 555320, Edinburgh 15
ePayment
Terms and Conditions
These are the terms and conditions governing use of the ePayment
service.
Definitions
“RoS” means the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, Meadowbank House,
153 London Road, Edinburgh EH8 7AU.
“ePayment” or “ePayment service” means the system of notification and
payment/collection of registration or other fees due to RoS by you
“you” means the organisation on whose behalf the DDI has been signed
“DDI” means a valid direct debit instruction
“BACS” means the banks automated clearing system
“FAS number” means the account number or numbers allocated to you by
RoS
By using RoS ePayment service you agree to accept and abide by the
terms and conditions set out below.
THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY IN FULL AND IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE
BOUND BY THEM YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE EPAYMENT SERVICE. MAKE SURE YOU
READ THEM CAREFULLY AND IN FULL BEFORE SIGNING UP.
1.
ePayment is made available by RoS by means of a variable direct
debit instruction with funds being requested and transferred under
BACS.
2.
You must have a valid e-mail account to use ePayment. You must
provide RoS with the correct and currently valid address of the
e-mail account to which you would like notification of your due
payment to be sent. The accuracy of that e-mail address is
entirely your responsibility and in particular, but without
limitation, should that e-mail account ever become invalid or
should you wish notification of your due payment to be sent to a
different e-mail account it shall be your responsibility to notify
RoS. For the avoidance of doubt, liability for any due payment
will not be dependent on e-mail notification.
3.
In order to use the ePayment service, you must complete and return
to us a valid DDI. RoS will notify you when RoS have received the
DDI, it is accepted by your Bank/Building Society, and the
ePayment service has been enabled for your use.
4.
All payments due under the ePayment service will be collected by
direct debit using BACS.
5.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your Bank/Building
Society will accept a DDI for your nominated account. Direct Debit
collections can only be made subject to acceptance of the DDI by
your Bank/Building Society.
6.
The submission of a DDI will act as confirmation that you accept
and will comply with these terms and conditions.
7.
The DDI is subject to the Direct Debit Guarantee operated by all
Banks and Building Societies which take part in the Direct Debit
Scheme. The DDI can be cancelled at any time. To do this you
simply write to your Bank or Building Society cancelling the
instruction, and send a copy of the cancellation letter to RoS.
For the avoidance of doubt, cancellation of the DDI will not
affect your liability for any payment due to RoS by you.
8.
Any applications that you submit to RoS under the ePayment system
should be clearly marked as such and contain the FAS number
specifically allocated to you for use of the ePayment service, and
you agree that this will be deemed to be a tender of the fee for
the purposes of s.1(1) of the Land Registers (Scotland) Act 1995
and s. 4(2)(e) of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979, and
as your authority to collect the correct payment due
(notwithstanding any erroneous statement of the fee due on any
application form) from your nominated bank account under the DDI.
Without prejudice to the foregoing provision, where the amount of
the payment due stated on any application form differs by more
than Two Hundred Pounds (£200) from the correct payment due, RoS
will endeavour to notify you of this difference prior to seeking
settlement of the correct payment due by means of the ePayment
service.
9.
As soon as practicable after receipt from you of any applications
making use of the ePayment service notification will be sent to
you by e-mail itemising the applications received on a particular
date and the fees due by you in respect of such applications. At
the same time, or as soon as practicable thereafter a BACS request
will be sent to your nominated Bank/Building Society account under
the DDI for payment to RoS of the sums calculated in accordance
with the said notification. You agree to the reduction of the
minimum period of notice required under the direct debit scheme to
nil.
10.
You shall remain fully responsible and liable to pay any due
payments of which notification has been sent to the e-mail address
you have specified regardless of whether or not you access that
e-mail account and read the relevant e-mail, are disconnected from
your e-mail account or for any other reason fail to read the
relevant notification.
11.
You must ensure that there are sufficient cleared funds available
in your nominated account to pay the due payment on the collection
day. If for any reason you are aware that the Direct Debit
collection will fail, you should notify RoS immediately and use an
alternative method to make payment forthwith.
12.
RoS cannot guarantee uninterrupted and/or reliable access to the
ePayment service and makes no guarantees whatsoever as to its
operation, availability, functionality, that it will be free of
error or disruption or otherwise. RoS will provide notice to you
regarding permanent discontinuance of service where the
circumstances reasonably allow. RoS may prevent you from using the
service immediately without notice if you breach any of these
terms and conditions.
13.
While RoS does not charge for the ePayment service itself, you may
be required to pay access fees and/or call charges necessary to
access your e-mails to whoever provides such access to you and any
requisite bank charges to your Bank/Building Society. Your
liability to pay any such charges shall have no effect on any of
your obligations in relation to the ePayment service.
14.
RoS will take reasonable care (to the extent that it is within the
power of RoS to do so) to keep any bank account or other details
that you may supply to RoS secure. The entire responsibility of
RoS to you regarding any security breach will be to endeavour to
prevent its continuance or repetition once the problem is drawn to
the attention of RoS. All other responsibilities and liabilities
are hereby excluded.
15.
You agree to use the ePayment service responsibly. You will not:-
*
use ePayment for any fraudulent or other illegal purpose or to
interrupt or damage our services or to make them less efficient;
*
do anything that affects the operability or security of ePayment
or causes unreasonable inconvenience, or offence or disruption to
RoS or any of its staff.
16.
If you wish to cancel use of the ePayment service, you should
notify RoS in writing. RoS will cancel any FAS number specifically
allocated to you for the purpose of the ePayment service as soon
as practicable after such notification. You will remain
responsible for payment in full of any payments due under the
ePayment service. You should also cancel your DDI with your
Bank/Building Society.
17.
If the ePayment service and DDI remains unused for a period of 12
months or for any period subsequently chosen at the discretion of
RoS, RoS reserves the right to reject this as a method of payment
of fees and require payment by an alternative means.
18.
RoS expressly reserves the right to alter these terms and
conditions from time to time by notifying you by e-mail (or in
such other durable medium as RoS may decide) of new terms and
conditions on the ePayment service. RoS will make the latest
version of these terms and conditions available for you to read at
all times on the RoS web-site. Your use of the ePayment service
and submission of any application forms with the ePayment FAS
number or marked for payment under the ePayment service will be
deemed an acceptance of the terms and conditions subsisting at the
time of submission.
19.
If any provision of these terms and conditions shall be unlawful,
void or unenforceable for any reason then that provision shall be
deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and
enforceability of the remaining provisions.
20.
RoS reserves the right to refuse use of the ePayment service to
anyone at any time and for any reason whatsoever in its absolute
discretion. Further, we reserve the right to modify or discontinue
(permanently or temporarily) the ePayment service to you or all
recipients at the discretion of RoS. If insufficient funds are
available for the due payment on the collection day RoS may refuse
the use of the ePayment service.
21.
Except insofar as exclusion of liability is prohibited by statute,
RoS shall not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental or
consequential loss, nor for any damages for loss of business, loss
of profits, loss of anticipated savings or the like, whether based
upon breach of contract, negligence, product liability or
otherwise, whether or not foreseeable and even if RoS has been
advised of the possibility of such loss or damage. Without
prejudice to the foregoing generality, (1) RoS shall have no
liability in respect of any actions, claims, costs, demands,
expenses or liabilities made against or incurred by you arising
out of any defect in, or the breakdown, failure or non-performance
of the systems and equipment (whether belonging to, maintained by
or used by you, RoS or any third party) utilised in connection
with the use of the service and (2) while RoS have taken and will
continue to take reasonable precautions in respect of computer
viruses, RoS shall not be liable for any consequences of any
failure to prevent the transmission of computer viruses. You will
take such precautions as you deem fit.
22.
These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in
accordance with the laws of Scotland and shall be subject to the
exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts.