Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Heritable property definition

What does Heritable property mean? In legal practice, heritable property means land and anything fixed to or growing on it, together with rights that run with land and are treated as land when owned, conveyed or inherited. The term is used chiefly in Scots law (in both legislation and case law) to denote immoveable property (heritage), contrasted with moveable property; in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland the equivalent concepts are land, real property or immovable property, and “heritable property” is not the usual expression. Heritable property covers corporeal subjects (land, buildings, fixtures and natural growth) and incorporeal heritable rights, such as servitudes, separate tenements...

Licences to Occupy versus Leases of Commercial Premises in Scotland: Indicators, Drafting, LBTT, Notice and Removal

Published by a LexisNexis Property Disputes expert

Practice notes

Differences between leases and licences to occupy

Leases

In Scots law, a lease is a contract permitting a tenant to occupy a landlord’s heritable property for a set period, in exchange for rent, typically paid on a periodical basis and usually in money (though payment in goods is possible, albeit uncommon).

The four cardinal elements of a lease are generally accepted as:

defined subjects
a rent
an agreed duration
identification of the separate parties

For further information, see: Cardinal elements: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia [4]. If the other cardinal elements are present but the length is not, the court may imply a duration of one year.

Licences to Occupy

A licence to occupy (licence) is a contract falling short of a lease, granting a right to use property, or part of it, rather than any possessory right in the property itself being ceded; see: Licence: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia [20]. Licences are used across a range of industry sectors in Scotland...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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