For any homeowner, your titles are a crucial legal document. They show who the property belongs to, and what your rights and responsibilities are in regard to your property. If you live in a tenement building, parts of which are shared with several different flat owners, understanding your titles is particularly important. You will rely on them every time you need to organise a repair, to work out who is responsible for organising and paying for the work. Generally, you will be individually responsible for your own flat, but may share responsibility for areas such as the close, roof, external walls and basement. Your titles will tell you exactly what these areas are, and how the cost of repairs should be shared between the responsible parties.
Sometimes, particularly in older buildings, your titles may not reflect the current way your building works, and might need to be changed. Problems with titles can sometimes hold back repairs and cause difficulties for people living in tenement buildings. Under One Roof’s guidance on property rules and titles provides further information for owners. Read on to find out about why and how to change your building’s titles.
Why Might You Need to Change Your Titles?
You may need to change your building’s titles on the rare occasion that they are getting in the way of carrying out a repair. Tenement owners usually change their titles to change the share each flat owner pays towards common repairs. For example, if a flat has been significantly enlarged since the titles were first written, owners may feel that it is unfair for everyone to pay the same amount towards a repair when one owner is in a much larger flat. Similarly, if there is a shop on the ground floor, and the shop owner is responsible for a much larger share of common repair costs due to the Rateable Value of their property (a figure which was set in 1989 and which does not reflect the modern value of most shops) they may wish to change the titles to ensure they pay a smaller, fairer share of repair costs. Regardless of the reason, changing the titles means making a permanent, legal change that will affect everyone who lives in your building after you, so it should not be taken lightly.
If you have spoken to all your fellow owners, and they all agree that the titles should be changed, your next step should be to take legal advice. Each owner needs to register a change in their titles with Registers of Scotland, and a solicitor is needed to make sure you follow the correct procedure for this. A solicitor will also check that there are no unintended implications or problems caused by the changes you wish to make.
What Happens If Owners Don’t Agree?
If all the owners in the building do not agree to change their titles, you will need to seek a different type of legal advice and action. A solicitor will be able to start the process of serving your neighbours with the appropriate legal notices, and if the disagreement can’t be resolved, you may need to attend a hearing at the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, which handles land and property disputes.
The Tribunal will consider your case, looking at factors such as how beneficial the change of titles could be to the building as a whole, whether the change will make it easier or harder to organise repairs in the future, and how much specific owners might lose out on or benefit financially from the title change. The Tribunal can’t change the ownership of parts of your building, but they can award compensation to owners who might lose out due to the title change.
It may be the case that you don’t want to change your titles, but your neighbour is doing something in the building which you believe to be prohibited by your current titles. They may be making changes to the property, running a business from it or using it as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), all of which may be forbidden by your titles. If this happens, you can tell your neighbour in writing that they are in breach of the titles, and can follow that up with legal action if they don’t stop. A solicitor can help you determine whether it’s best to seek an order to force your neighbour to stop what they’re doing, or to get damages.
Understanding your building’s titles is the key to managing and maintaining your building well. Changing them is a potentially expensive legal process, which is sometimes necessary to ensure that repairs can be organised in a timely and fair manner. To find out more about titles, including how to change them, visit Under One Roof’s website.
