Here's what's actually in there
What you own
Not just your flat — your share of the common parts. The roof, the close, the back court, the external walls, the drains. The deeds define where your ownership ends and the shared stuff begins.
What you're responsible for — and in what proportion
This is the one that costs people money. When the roof needs £40,000 of work, your deeds decide your share. Equal split between flats? By floor area? By old rateable value? Ground-floor flats sometimes excused from roof costs, top-floor flats from the close? It's all in the deeds, and it's rarely what people assume.
How decisions get made
Some deeds set out voting rules and majorities. Where they're silent, the Tenement Management Scheme applies instead.
Whether a factor is baked in
Some deeds name a factor or set specific conditions for removing one. Some say nothing, leaving you free to appoint or dismiss by majority.
The burdens and restrictions
What you can't do (short lets, alterations, business use), and rights of access your neighbours have over your property and you over theirs.
Why this isn't academic
In one real Glasgow building, a 2021 survey recommending cladding replacement sat undisclosed for years. Owners bought, sold and insured their flats without knowing it existed. When you don't know what your deeds and building documents say, you're making five-figure decisions blind.
The catch
Deeds are written in dense conveyancing language — “heritable,” “pertinents,” “real burdens,” clauses that reference other clauses. Genuinely useful information, locked behind genuinely awful prose. That's exactly the gap this fixes.
This is information, not legal advice. Verify with a solicitor for your specific situation.