Title sheet (Scotland): the register entry that is your title deeds today

A title sheet is the single document that sets out the title to one registered plot of land in Scotland: it identifies the property, the proprietor, any heritable securities and any burdens. Its title number is also the number of the cadastral unit, the plot as drawn on the cadastral map. A tenement flat has its own title sheet even though the whole block is one cadastral unit on the map.

The land register for Scotland is map based and has been replacing the older register of deeds since 1981. How the two Scottish registers differ, and how to tell which one a property is on, is explained on our land registry search in Scotland page. England and Wales have a separate register and a different document, the title register, covered on our land registry search page.

Anyone can obtain a copy, owner or not.

If a Scottish property is on the land register, the title sheet is the current record of title and the old title deeds have been superseded by it. “Title deeds” in Scotland means the historic deeds, above all the dispositions that transferred the property from one owner to the next, with any standard securities and deeds of conditions. On first registration the registry distils those deeds into the four sections of the title sheet and keeps the deeds themselves in its archive record.

So when someone asks for “a copy of the title deeds” for a registered Scottish house, what they usually need is the title sheet and the title plan that goes with it. The full text of the burdens is on the title sheet, as is the proprietor and the lender. Scottish flats are almost always owned outright rather than held on long leases, so the leasehold titles described in our freehold vs leasehold guide are an England and Wales matter.

The property section describes the land, states the nature of the right (ownership, or a registered lease) and lists the rights that go with it, called pertinents. On a title sheet made since 8 December 2014 the description begins “Subjects”, quotes the cadastral unit number and refers you to the cadastral map: “Subjects cadastral unit ANG204817 41 Lorimer Crescent, Dundee, DD4 7QZ edged red on the cadastral map”.

A flat is described in words by reference to the building, because the map shows only the block: “Subjects part of cadastral unit ANG204817 edged red on the cadastral map being the northmost house on the third floor at 41 Lorimer Crescent, Dundee”. A garden or cellar belonging to that flat alone is an exclusive pertinent: “with the garden ground tinted pink”.

Rights over other land are incorporeal pertinents: “together with a right of pedestrian access over the path tinted mauve”. Shared rights read “together with (one) a right in common with the proprietors of the other flats in and to the common passage and stair”. A note may add “The minerals are excepted”, cross referring to the deed in the burdens section that governs them.

A registered lease carries a schedule headed “Short Particulars of Lease”; a landlord’s title lists its registered leases in a Schedule of Leases.

The proprietorship section names the proprietor and records how and when they acquired the property, in columns.

Two or more proprietors without stated shares are shown as owning “equally between them”; unequal shares are written out, “to the extent of a one third pro indiviso share”. A survivorship destination, where the share of the first to die passes to the survivor, is recorded in the same entry.

The securities section lists every heritable security over the property, with the creditor’s name and designation. The basic entry reads “Standard Security by said MORAG ELSPETH BAIRD and CALLUM ROSS BAIRD to Carse Mutual Building Society (registered office address)”.

Each entry carries the date the security was registered, or the date it was recorded in the older register if it predates first registration. Securities rank by date unless an entry carries a ranking note, common where two lenders have agreed their order.

The section shows that a security exists and who holds it, not the amount borrowed, the balance or the rate. When a loan is repaid, a discharge is registered and the entry is removed.

The burdens section sets out the title conditions, servitudes, long leases and statutory encumbrances that affect the property, in numbered entries. Each entry opens with a preamble identifying the deed, the parties and the date, “Disposition by Lorimer Estates Limited to Alexander Cargill, registered 3 Mar 1998, contains burdens…”, then reproduces the conditions in full.

A real burden is an obligation on the owner to do or not do something: keep the roof in repair, contribute to the cost of the common stair, use the subjects as a private dwelling house only, keep no animals other than domestic pets. A servitude is a right one property holds over a neighbouring property, most often a right of way, binding successive owners of both. Where the registry knows which property is benefited by a condition, the entry says so.

A burden affecting only part of the plot carries a map reference such as “the area tinted blue”; one affecting the whole plot usually has none. A very long deed may be incorporated by reference to the archive record instead of being reproduced.

Take an invented flat, the northmost house on the third floor at 41 Lorimer Crescent, Dundee, DD4 7QZ, title number ANG204817. Its title sheet reads, in outline, as follows.

From these four sections a reader knows who owns the flat, that it is co-owned with a survivorship destination, that one lender holds a security, and that the flat carries one eighth of the common repair costs. The block’s extent is on the title plan, which our title plan (Scotland) page explains.

Read it in this order.

1. Check the title number against the cadastral unit number in the A section, and check the address. If it is not the property you meant, contact us before relying on anything else.
2. Read the first sentence of the A section for the nature of the right. “Subjects” followed by a description means ownership; a lease title says so and carries Short Particulars of Lease.
3. Note every pertinent in the A section: exclusive areas, rights of access and rights in common. Each colour or letter reference points to the title plan.
4. Read the Proprietor column in the B section: every name, the designation, the shares and any survivorship destination. Then the Date of Registration and the Consideration.
5. Count the entries in the C section. One entry is one standard security. Note the creditor, the date and any ranking note.
6. Read each entry in the D section from its preamble, then the conditions in full, marking any that restrict use or alterations and any that impose a share of repair costs.
7. For each burden, note whether it names a benefited property and whether it carries a map reference. A condition naming no benefited property may still be enforceable.
8. Check whether any entry is marked “provisional” and whether warranty is limited or excluded for any part. Both are unusual on a house or flat and both need advice.

Suppose you own an invented house at 18 Doonholm Rise, Ayr, KA7 4RT, title number AYR318402, and want to run a beauty salon from the converted garage. Whether the title conditions allow it is answered in the D section.

Read every entry from its preamble. On a 1970s estate the first entry is usually a disposition by the builder or a deed of conditions, and the conditions often include “the subjects shall be used as a private dwelling house only and for no trade, business or profession”. A condition in those terms would be breached by a salon open to customers, whatever the council says about planning.

Then look for who can enforce it. If the entry names a benefited property, the neighbours may be entitled to object; if it names none, the condition may still bind, and a solicitor can advise on discharge, variation or a waiver. Compare the burdens with the title plan too, because a condition may apply only to the area tinted blue and not to the garage at all.

Suppose a strip of overgrown ground runs behind the gardens of Bannockburn Road in Stirling, and you want to know who owns it before offering to buy it. The strip has no postal address, so a postcode lookup will not find it.

Tell us what you know on the order form: the nearest address, a description of the strip and, if a neighbour has one, a title number. Ground beside a house is often part of that house’s title, so the first check is the A section of the neighbouring title sheet, which says whether the strip is included. If not, the strip may have its own title sheet, or it may still be on the older register of deeds, in which case we tell you before anything is charged.

The B section of the right title sheet then gives the proprietor’s name and designation. We search by address or title number only, never by a person’s name.