Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000

Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000

Act of Parliament
Scottish Parliament
Long title	An Act of the Scottish Parliament to abolish the feudal system of land tenure; to abolish a related system of land tenure; to make new provision as respects the ownership of land; to make consequential provision for the extinction and recovery of feuduties and of certain other perpetual periodical payments and for the extinction by prescription of any obligation to pay redemption money under the Land Tenure Reform (Scotland) Act 1974; to make further provision as respects real burdens affecting land; to provide for the disentailment of land; to discharge all rights of irritancy held by superiors; to abolish the obligation of thirlage; to prohibit with certain exceptions the granting of leases over land for periods exceeding 175 years; to make new provision as respects conveyancing; to enable firms with separate personality to own land; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2000 asp 5
Introduced by	Jim Wallace
Territorial extent	Scotland
Dates
Royal assent	9 June 2000
Commencement	9 June 2000
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes	Feu-duty Act 1597 Registration Act 1661 Ann Act 1672 Entail Act 1685 Udal Tenure Act 1690 Teinds Act 1690 Entail Improvement Act 1770 Burghs of Barony (Scotland) Act 1795 Thirlage Act 1799 Teinds Act 1808 Entail Provisions Act 1824 Register of Sasines Act 1829 New Churches (Scotland) Act 1834 Erasures in Deeds (Scotland) Act 1836 Entail Powers Act 1836 Entail Act 1838 Court of Session (No.2) Act 1838 Court of Session Act 1839 Entail Sites Act 1840 New Parishes (Scotland) Act 1844 Infeftment Act 1845 Entail Amendment Act 1853 Entail Cottages Act 1860 Parochial Buildings (Scotland) Act 1862 Fish Teinds (Scotland) Act 1864 Improvement of Land Act 1864 Glebe Lands (Scotland) Act 1866 Parochial Buildings (Scotland) Act 1866 United Parishes (Scotland) Act 1868 Entail Amendment (Scotland) Act 1868 Ecclesiastical Buildings and Glebes (Scotland) Act 1868 Titles to Land Consolidation (Scotland) Amendment Act 1869 Limited Owners Residences Act 1870 Limited Owners Residences Act (1870) Amendment Act 1871 Entail Amendment (Scotland) Act 1875 United Parishes (Scotland) Act 1876 Entail Amendment (Scotland) Act 1878 Settled Land Act 1882 Entail (Scotland) Act 1882 Settled Land Act 1890 Registration of Certain Writs (Scotland) Act 1891 Improvement of Land Act 1899 Ecclesiastical Assessments (Scotland) Act 1900 Feudal Casualties (Scotland) Act 1914 Duplicands of Feu-duties (Scotland) Act 1920 Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) (Amendment) Act 1957
Relates to	Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5) was a land reform enforced by an Act of the Scottish Parliament that was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 3 May 2000, and received Royal Assent on 9 June 2000.

Provisions

The Act officially brought to an end annual feu duties, a vestige of feudal land tenure, on 28 November 2004 (that is, Martinmas, as the Act required the "appointed day" to be one of the Scottish term days). Tommy Sheridan was one of a number of MSPs who drove this change through the Scottish Parliament. After that date, the former vassal of an estate was the sole owner of the land, and the former superior's rights were extinguished. For a further two years, the superior had the option of claiming compensation; this was fixed at a single payment of a size that, when invested at an annual rate of 2.5%, would yield interest equal to the former feu duty. Because inflation had eroded the value of duties, which had been fixed many years before, this payment was in most cases extremely small compared with the current value of the land.

In consequence of this change in the legal basis of land-holding, the Act also reformulated the legal basis on which conditions on the use of land can be specified in the title to ownership of that land. Such title conditions (known variously as real burdens and real conditions in the prior law) were combined into "real burdens". Prior to the Act, a superior could choose to enforce title conditions, or grant a consent or waiver (usually for payment) allowing the land owner to disregard the condition even if otherwise neighbouring property owners might wish to enforce the condition. Existing conditions which were enforceable only by the superior were abolished, and only conditions enforceable by the owners of neighbouring property or by certain legal bodies on public policy grounds were retained. Transitional arrangements allowed superiors who were also neighbouring property owners to convert the old title conditions to benefit their land and hence themselves as owners of that land rather than themselves as feudal superior.

Following this change in the legal basis for title conditions, the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 was passed, reconstituting the mechanics of how new real burdens and servitudes could be created. These two Acts, together with a third Act (the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004), commenced on 28 November 2004.

See also

• Land reform in Scotland

External links

Legislation

• Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc (Scotland) Act 2000
• Text of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

Literature

• Andrew J. M. Steven: "Revolution in Scottish Land Law Archived 7 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine" in: Electronic Journal of Comparative Law 8.3 (October 2004)
• David Sellar: "Farewell to Feudalism" in: Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain: The Kingdom in Scotland. Edited by Peter Beauclerk Dewar. Wilmington, DE ¹⁹2001, pp. xix - xxi