Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GROUND-ANNUAL, n.comb. Sc. law: a perpetual annual rent chargeable on land arising as explained in 1754 and 1838 quots., “the liability for it forming a real burden on the land and the relationship between the creditor and the debtor not being a feudal one” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 39).Edb. 1708 D. Robertson S. Leith Rec. (1925) 17:
Referres to the Committee that is to meet on Munday to . . . seek out the rights to the ground annuall payable to the Session out of the King's works commonly called Bernards nook.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles ii. iv. 4 a.:
Land which had before the Reformation belonged to the Church may come to be in this position, that the actual proprietor either holds, or may . . . take out, a title from the Crown, while a Lord of Erection has right to a yearly exaction out of the land . . . called . . . a ground annual.Sc. 1838 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 458:
Where sub-feus are prohibited, those who speculate in building-ground, by taking land in feu, with the intention of again disposing of small portions to builders, stipulate for an annual-rent from the builder, rather than a price payable at once. This is accomplished by the creation of a ground-annual.Sc. 1929 Green's Encyclopedia VII. 512:
A feu-duty presupposes a feu-contract, and by a feu-contract a new legal estate is created; but no new estate is created by a contract of ground annual, which merely transfers an estate already in existence.Sc. 1953 Scotsman (15 Jan.) 1:
Ground Annual, £17, payable in One Sum, secured over substantial Tenement Property in Edinburgh. Assessed Rental, £209; Small over-Feu-duty.