At the 2022 Census, 32.4% of Scottish households lived in a tenement or purpose-built flat (Scotland's Census 2022). The Scottish House Condition Survey puts tenements alone at 23% of homes, with pre-1919 tenements at 7% (SHCS 2024). That is a lot of shared roofs.
Who owns the roof
Ownership starts with your title deeds. Where the deeds are silent, the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 fills the gap. Section 2(3) is short: "A top flat extends to and includes the roof over that flat" (section 2). So in law the roof may belong to the top-floor owner, or to everyone, depending on the deeds.
Ownership and upkeep are different questions, though. The Tenement Management Scheme in the Act's first schedule treats the roof, including the rafters and structure that hold it up, as "scheme property" that all owners maintain together (schedule 1). Fixing panels to it affects everyone's shared repair bill and the roof's future condition.
How owners decide
Under the Tenement Management Scheme each flat gets one vote and a scheme decision is made by a majority of all the votes. But the decisions it lists are mainly about maintenance, and "maintenance" in the Act does not include alteration or improvement unless it is incidental to a repair. Solar panels are an improvement. The Act does not say that a majority can impose them on owners who object.
The practical answer is to get every owner's agreement in writing before spending money, covering who pays, who owns the panels, who benefits from the power and who pays to lift and refit them when the roof needs repairs. If the deeds or the owners' association have their own rules, those apply first. Where there is disagreement, take legal advice.
| Question | Default rule (deeds can change it) |
|---|---|
| Who owns the roof? | The top flat beneath it (section 2(3)) |
| Who maintains it? | All owners: the roof is scheme property (TMS rule 1.2) |
| How are scheme decisions made? | Majority of all votes, one per flat (TMS rules 2.2 and 2.5) |
| Are improvements "maintenance"? | No, unless incidental to maintenance |
Options for a tenement
- A shared system for the common supply. Stair lighting and door entry run on a common supply in many blocks; panels feeding it benefit every owner and keep the arrangement simple.
- A system for the top flat. Where the top-floor owner owns the roof and the others agree, panels can feed that flat alone, wired through the building with consent.
- Separate systems on separate roof slopes. Possible on some blocks, but each needs space, an inverter and a route for cables.
Sandstone tenements are tall, so scaffold is a significant part of the cost; combining panels with roof repairs the owners already plan can save a second scaffold. Our cost page shows Scottish prices per kW, and the yield tool shows what a south-facing tenement slope in, say, Edinburgh (903 kWh per kW at 35°) or Glasgow (853) would make.
Planning for flats
Scotland's permitted-development rules for solar, Class 6HA, apply to a "dwelling", which the order defines as a house, a building containing flats, or a flat within such a building (Part 1A). Panels are permitted if they protrude no more than 1 metre from the wall, roof plane, ridge or chimney, except on listed buildings or in World Heritage Sites. In a conservation area they may not go on the principal elevation or on a side elevation that fronts a road, which rules out the street side of many tenements in historic districts. See planning permission in Scotland for the detail.
Plug-in panels
From 27 August 2026, plug-in solar devices of up to 800 watts that plug into a socket became legal across Great Britain, including Scotland, under SI 2026/848 (legislation.gov.uk). For a flat with a south-facing window ledge or balcony they are the one form of solar an individual owner can usually arrange alone. We found no Scottish Government statement on how planning rules treat them, and the title deeds or building rules may restrict anything fixed to the outside, so check before buying.
Your title sheet and your factor
Deed rules that override the Act sit in the burdens section of your title sheet, where the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland must enter the title conditions that affect the property (Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012, section 9). Look there for what is said about the roof, the common parts, alterations and how owners' meetings are called. Old tenement burdens can be hard going, so a solicitor's reading is worth having before anyone pays a deposit.
If the building has a property factor, the factor must be registered and must follow a statutory code of conduct (Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011). Under that code its written statement of services has to set out the basis of its authority to act for the owners, any spending threshold for instructing work, and when it may act without consulting them (Code of Conduct, section 1). Read that statement before asking the factor to take a solar proposal round the stair: it tells you whether the factor can organise the decision or only pass the proposal on. An owner who believes a factor has breached the code can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland under section 17 of the Act.
Steps to take
- Read your title deeds for what they say about the roof and common parts.
- Talk to the other owners, or the factor or owners' association if there is one.
- Get the roof's condition checked: panels should go on after any re-roofing, not before.
- Ask for a written proposal from an MCS-certified installer that all owners can see; the installer guide on this site lists what it should cover.
- Record the agreement in writing, including what happens when the roof needs repair.