Response From Scottish Lawyer On The ASA Ruling Against Highland Titles

There was an interesting response publish in The Scotsman newspaper after the story about the ruling against Highland Titles was published. This is letter to the Scotsman newspaper sent by Craig Anderson, Lecturer In Law at Robert Gordon University Aberdeen.

In it Mr Anderson makes it very clear that in his opinion, buyers of souvenir plots in Scotland do not own the land they might have been led to believe they have bought.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/letters/law-of-the-land-1-3336742

Who would you rather believe, a lecturer in law in Scotland, or a company like Highland Titles who have been found by the Advertising Standards Authority to be publishing misleading information in their advertising materials?

The letter is reproduced in full below.

"I note from your article, “ASA raps company over ‘fake Scots laird’ titles”, (11 March) that the Advertising Standards Authority has taken action against a company claiming to sell minuscule pieces of land, entitling the purchaser to adopt the title Laird, Lord or Lady of Glencoe.

Such action is to be welcomed. However, I am afraid that, in ­reporting the exposure of one part of this company’s misrepresentation, you have given ­credence to another. Your article stated that the sale of these plots has “created 7,500 new Scots landowners”. It has done nothing of the sort. A person who buys land in Scotland can only become the owner by registration in the Land Register of Scotland.

The Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 does not allow registration of “souvenir plots”, meaning “land which, being of inconsiderable size, or no practical utility, is unlikely to be wanted in isolation except for the sake of mere ownership or for sentimental reasons or commemorative purposes”.

As the square-foot plots sold by this company clearly fall within this definition, they cannot be registered and, as a result, their purchasers can never become owners of the land they believe that they have bought.

In other words, so far is this company’s scheme from creating 7,500 new landowners, that it has in fact created none whatsoever.

Craig Anderson

Lecturer in law

Robert Gordon University

Aberdeen"

ASA Rules Highland Titles Misleading And Laird Titles Are Fake

There has now been an Advertising Standards Authority Ruling made against Highland Titles, which finds they have been misleading customers to believe that they receive a Scottish landowners Laird Lord or Lady title, when this is not actually true.

It's official, there are no Scottish landowner titles, and you cannot buy a Scottish Lord or Lady title from Highland Titles or anybody else. Laird isn't a Scottish title, that is just something made up by the con artists trying to sell you one.

Some quotations from the ASA ruling.

“However, we considered the overall impression of the website and noted a large number of statements that implied a direct link between the purchase of the land sold by Highland Titles and the attainment of the titles Lord, Lady or Laird."

“We considered that consumers were likely to understand those statements to mean that through the purchase of a souvenir plot of land from Highland Titles they would gain the right to use a title to which they would not otherwise have had the right."

“We considered that those statements contradicted the message that anyone was able to use those titles and gave the impression that the titles available to customers who bought land from Highland Titles were recognised in a way that titles adopted by ordinary members of the public were not."

“Because we considered that the ad included a number of contradictory statements in relation to the nature of the titles available to Highland Titles’ customers, we concluded that the website was ambiguous and likely to mislead.”

 The story was reported in several Scottish newspapers.

 Screen capture from the Herald Scotland website of the Highland Titles Fake Laird Titles ASA story

Two screen captures from The Scotsman newspaper website on the Highland Titles fake laird titles story

Scan of the Metro newspaper of the Highland Titles fake laird titles story.

As pointed out in a comment the story was also the Daily Record, under the headline "You Have Been 'Ad M'lady". http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-361213255.html

Highland Titles have been found to be misleading people into believing that through ownership of land they gained the right to take up a Laird Lord or Lady title. The Advertising Standards Authority have pointed out this is entirely untrue. If Highland Titles are willing to knowingly mislead their customers like this, what else might they be leading them to believe which is not true? Perhaps the extent of and the amount of money spent on conservation work?

Footnote

As also pointed out in a comment, the Highlend Titles story appeared on The Scotsman newspaper website for a while on the 11th March (screen captures above), then vanished. I don't know if this is the reason it was withdrawn, but it does appear that The Scotsman has some kind of 'partner' relationship with Highland Titles as a Google search reveals.

One would hope that any such arrangement would not compromise editorial decisions, but I'd bet The Scotsman wouldn't be very popular in Glencoe if that was found to be the reason the article was withdrawn from The Scotsman website.