Scot-free & Lots

Anyone owning a unit in a strata title development in Australia and many other parts of the world will be familiar with the concept of ‘Lot Entitlements’ which set the share of corporate/common fees paid by each unit owner and their voting rights in the owners’ corporation.

Similarly, most English-speaking people will be aware of the expression she got off ‘scot-free’ meaning the person was released without receiving the deserved or expected punishment. Other similar meanings of scot-free are: without being harmed (possibly derived from a passage in Shakespeare’s Macbeth), or without paying their dues.  But where do these strange terms originate?

The term scot-free has nothing to do with Scotland. The word ‘skot’ is Old Norse for a payment or tax. It came into Middle English as ‘bescot’, referring specifically to a customary tax paid to a lord, bailiff, or sheriff, and into modern English as ‘scot’. Therefore, scot-free literally means exempt from tax; it has since been broadened to indicate ‘exempt from punishment’. In a Viking settlement, some people through privilege or service were ‘skot-free’ and did not pay taxes.

The flip side of some people being ‘scot-free’ was the need for the rest to pay their share of the taxes! To manage the different amounts people had to pay, the overall tax for the community was divided into ‘lots’ and then each taxpayer had to pay their lot.  Fast forward 1500 years and our share of the annual corporate fees for the building we live in is based on out ‘lot entitlements’ and there is no way we can get off scot-free……

For more on project management ad allied history see: https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PMKI-ZSY.php