S19.5 Tenement Property

Standard security descriptions over tenement property where there is no reference to fall back on.

Descriptions such as 3F1, 48E, 12/5 High Street and “left rear house on second flat”, are not usually sufficient to identify the property. They are all ambiguous. Fixed positions such as “northmost house on first flat” are acceptable, or, of course, a reference to a prior recorded deed containing such a description.

If the security subjects are not described in such a way to identify themselves, the deed should not be accepted for recording. The Keeper’s authority for doing so derives from the case of Macdonald v Keeper of the Registers, 1914 SC 854. That case concerned a description of a tenement flat which did no more than give the postal address of the tenement building and made no attempt to locate the individual flat. 
(See Sasine Memo 83.)