Landlords of commercial premises in Scotland, with registered leases, are in a fortunate position. All the legal procedures that could secure payment of their debts and costs could be carried out by a messenger-at-arms. There is no need for any other legal agency to be involved, unless bankruptcy proceedings prove necessary.
The collection of rents, as well as the execution of diligence, is official business for a messenger-at-arms. The Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules 1991, 14(2)(b) (albeit using ‘summary warrant’ when ‘warrant authorising summary diligence’ is in point) clearly puts collecting on a statutory basis: ‘A debt… recoverable by summary warrant may be collected… in the case of a decree or summary warrant of the Court of Session, by a messenger-at-arms’. A lease registered in the Books of Council and Session for preservation and execution is a ‘documents of debt’ (in terms of Section 221 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007), containing warrant for diligence.
As the collection and enforcement processes are all parts of a messenger-at-arms’ official functions, the prescribed fees for certain diligences are recoverable from the tenant’s first payments. Another advantage of employing Rutherford & Macpherson is that we charge no commission on the monies we recover.
Send us the extract registered lease and your statement of the sums due to be recovered. If the warrant is in order (and we can apply to the Court of Session for a suitable one, if there has been a change in the identity of the landlord since the lease was signed), the service of a charge for payment on the tenant may be all that is required to recover hitherto unpaid rent.
