Property buyers have been urged people to delay moving house, under new guidelines from the Scottish Government.
Registers of Scotland (Ros), which oversees all ownership of land and property in the country, has temporarily closed its applications to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Much of its remit involves the scanning in and checking of paper documents delivered to its office – a process which cannot be carried out by staff working from home.
The organisation is currently working on a digital platform which will allow it to resume some operations.
In the meantime, people who are due to move home have been told to postpone their transactions wherever possible.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “There may be no need to pull out of transactions but we should all be trying to reduce social interaction between people in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
“People are therefore urged to delay moving to a new home while stay-at-home measures are in place.
“We recognise that this will be difficult for people who had hoped to move house in the next few months but urge all of those involved to adapt and be flexible.
“Prioritising the health of individuals and the public must be the priority.”
RoS, UK Finance and the Law Society of Scotland have implemented measures which will allow some urgent property transactions to still take place.
This requires the buyer to meet a number of criteria including the filing of an advance notice – a document which states a transaction is pending so both parties can secure a “placeholder” for the full application.
Registers of Scotland said its initial tests of a new digital system for this process have been successful, and is continuing work to roll it out to everyone.
A statement from the organisation said: “We have worked around the clock to put in place both an immediate and a medium term solution that will enable property transactions to continue remotely, as required, during this public health emergency.
“We are also urgently working to bring in fully digital systems to allow us to re-open the application record as soon as possible.”
A Law Society of Scotland spokesman said: “We know the spread of coronavirus is placing enormous pressure on the legal profession.
“We are already undertaking a range of activities to support solicitors to deal with this challenge.
“However, we want to do more and are looking carefully at what additional measures including financial measures that we could take.”
