This guidance covers our approach to tenements and flatted buildings on the cadastral map.
Individual flats within a tenement or flatted building are a limited exception to the 'no registration without mapping' rule.
We represent a tenement and all the flats within it as a single cadastral unit. Individual flats within the building each have their own title sheet and title number. We can describe a flat verbally or by reference to supplementary data to the title sheet.
Before you apply to register a flat in a tenement, you can check if we already hold an extent for the building. A plans report from our reports service will provide sufficient information. If we already hold an acceptable extent, you don’t need to define tenement steading in your application.
If we don’t hold an extent for the tenement steading, you’ll need to sufficiently describe it in your application for us to delineate it on the cadastral map.
Introduction
No registration without mapping is a key principle underpinning the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012. However, the Act enables the keeper to apply a limited exception to the principle for tenements and other flatted buildings, because of the difficulties associated with mapping vertical boundaries.
The exception is found in section 16 and, in large part, allows the keeper to replicate a style of mapping commonly used for such buildings under the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979. Section 16 allows the keeper to represent the building (including land pertaining to it) and all the registered flats within it as a single cadastral unit. In essence, a block of flats is represented by a single red edge on the cadastral map, which is referred to by the keeper as the tenement steading.
Section 16 applies both to tenements as defined in the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, and to other subdivided buildings comprising at least two flats in separate ownership (or designed to be so) and separated vertically. For example, this might include a Victorian villa which has been split into two but would not include a row of terraced houses. For simplicity, where the guidance refers to tenements, that is also intended to cover other flatted buildings mapped in accordance with section 16.
Section 16 preserves the possibility of mapping flats individually using vertical boundaries in future, but the keeper's current policy is to use the exception in that section.
What registration of a flat in a tenement will look like
Each flat will have a separate title sheet and number, the property section of which will describe the flat by reference to the cadastral unit number of the tenement steading. For example:
"Subjects, part of Cadastral Unit GLA12345 edged red on the Cadastral Map, being the westmost dwelling house on the first floor above the ground floor of the Tenement 48 CRAIGPARK, GLASGOW G31 2LX."
For the first flat registered in a tenement since designated day, the title number and cadastral unit number will be the same. Subsequent flats registered will each have a different title number.
For flats with exclusive or common pertinents - such as areas of garden ground - these will not be mapped on the cadastral map. Instead, they will be shown on a separate plan as supplementary data to the title sheet for the flat or flats to which they belong.
Defining the tenement steading
Where the keeper already holds an extent for the tenement steading
In cases where the keeper already holds sufficient information on the extent of the tenement steading, the applicant does not need to supply any further information on that. They should simply ensure that their application/deed is clear about the location of the flat with which they are dealing and the location of any exclusive ground pertaining to that flat.
The keeper will already hold an extent for the tenement steading in the following cases:
- where there has been at least one flat from the tenement registered under the 2012 Act
- where a previous 1979 Act registration of a flat within a single tenement has been mapped using the tenement steading approach. In these cases the property section in the title sheet of the flat will describe the property as falling "within the land edged red" and the red edge consists of a single tenement block.
- a flat is being transferred from a registered title and the registered title comprises only the tenement from which the flat is being transferred.
A plans report (of any level) from the keeper will disclose whether the keeper already holds an extent for the tenement steading.
Where the keeper does not hold an extent for the steading
In such cases, the application must provide sufficient information for the keeper to create a cadastral unit to represent the tenement. As a minimum, the keeper will require a description of the location of the flat within the tenement and a plan or full bounding description of any common or exclusive areas of ground lying outwith the footprint of the building itself. That may include, for example, a shared back court and an exclusive car parking space. Sometimes that will be set out in the breakaway/foundation deed for the flat, and sometimes it will be by reference to a deed of conditions.
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no requirement to provide information on areas owned exclusively by other flats within the building. However, if the full extent of the tenement steading is known to the applicant (ie all land pertaining to the building including land exclusive to other flats) then this may be submitted with the application.
The obligation on applicants registering flats is therefore the same as the obligation on applicants for any other area of ground.
Find further information on the quality of the plan/bounding description required in our deed plan criteria guidance.
There may be some cases where the exact extent of common ground pertaining to the tenement is unclear. In such cases, it is a matter for the applicant to consider what is supported by the prior titles and possession, and to produce a fresh plan annexed to the deed submitted for registration if required. If the applicant is unable to ascertain the full extent of such areas, they may decide to provide a plan which includes only ground they are certain is supported by the titles or a plan which is limited to the footprint of the building. In such cases, the title sheet and cadastral map will follow the new plan and restrict the extent of the property to the footprint of the building, even where that might represent a smaller area than the prior titles are capable of encompassing.
New buildings
New tenement and flatted buildings are those in which none of the individual flats have been registered in the land register or recorded in the sasine register before the designated day (8 December 2014). In new buildings, it is likely that the developer or owner of the whole building is a party to the deed being registered. It is also likely, at that stage, that the developer will be aware of how the land pertaining to the building is to be divided (ie the split of common and exclusive property between the flats). Where that is the case, the application for registration of the first flat should contain sufficient information for the keeper to map the full steading extent. This will ensure that the subsequent registration process is straightforward, and the developer - as granter - does not need to provide the same information continually for each sale from the building.
Developers may wish to consider using development plan approval in such cases, as that can provide certainty over the registration process from a very early stage.
View further information on development plan approval.
The 25 metre rule
For these new tenement buildings only, the 25 metre rule applies. Where land pertaining to the building lies or extends further than 25 metres from the building, the mapping rules in section 16 do not apply to that land. Accordingly, a separate cadastral unit must be created for that area in the same way as any other plot of land.
