Landlord safety checks in Edinburgh

Edinburgh landlords need the same safety checks as the rest of Scotland: an EICR at least every 5 years, a gas safety check every 12 months, PAT testing on appliances you supply, a legionella risk assessment, interlinked alarms and an EPC. Tell us the flat's postcode and the checks you need, and we'll pass each one to a suitable local specialist for a free quote.

Property Safety Scotland is a matching service, not an electrical or gas firm. The specialist you're matched with quotes you directly.

Where we match enquiries

We match enquiries for flats and houses right across the city. Postcodes we cover include Leith and Trinity (EH6, EH5), the New Town and Stockbridge (EH3), Marchmont and the Grange (EH9), Bruntsfield and Morningside (EH10), Newington (EH8, EH9), Gorgie and Dalry (EH11), Corstorphine (EH12), Portobello (EH15) and the city centre (EH1, EH2). If your property is outside those, send the enquiry anyway.

Edinburgh's housing and what it means for the checks

Tenement flats on shared stairs

A lot of Edinburgh's rented homes are flats in stone tenements, reached by a common stair. The alarm rules are about the inside of each home: smoke alarms in your flat's living room and hallway, and a heat alarm in your kitchen. The gas safety check covers each appliance and flue you provide, so wherever the boiler sits, in a kitchen cupboard or a hall press, the engineer needs to get to it and to wherever its flue runs.

Georgian and Victorian flats over more than one floor

Main-door and maisonette flats in the New Town, Stockbridge and the south side often run over two levels, with an internal stair. That means a landing as well as a hall, and the rules say every hallway and landing needs a smoke alarm. It's easy to miss the upper landing in a flat, so walk the whole property with the room-by-room checklist.

Older wiring in older buildings

In an older building you can't tell the state of the wiring by looking at the sockets, and the only way to know is to have it inspected. An EICR sets out exactly where the installation stands. One thing to look for straight away: the consumer unit needs at least one RCD. Without one, the flat doesn't meet the Repairing Standard, whatever else the report says.

Shared and student flats

Around the universities, flats are often let to groups of students or young professionals. Once three or more unrelated people live somewhere as their main home, it's a house in multiple occupation and needs an HMO licence from the council. Furnished shared flats also tend to come with a lot of appliances, so PAT testing is worth booking with the EICR.

Registration and HMO licensing with the council

Before you let anything in Edinburgh, you need to be registered as a landlord with the City of Edinburgh Council. Its private landlords page covers registration and the council's other services for landlords. Registration lasts three years.

If the property is an HMO, you also need a licence. The council's HMO licence page sets out how to apply. Applications need safety certificates, including a gas certificate, an EICR and a fire safety risk assessment, so it pays to have those booked before you start the form.

Electrical, gas and appliance checks

EICR: needed at least every 5 years, and the new tenant must get a copy before the tenancy starts. If you're between tenants, that's the time to book it, while the flat's empty and any remedial work won't disturb anyone.

Gas: if the flat has a gas boiler, fire or hob you provide, you need a gas safety check every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with a copy to existing tenants within 28 days.

PAT: covers the appliances you supply, with the retest date set at each test. An electrician can usually do it during the EICR visit.

The other checks

Every rental also needs a legionella risk assessment, reviewed at least every two years in Scotland, and an EPC when you let to a new tenant. Our landlord certificates checklist has them all in one table, and the printable new tenancy checklist is handy to take round the flat.

Letting in the west of Scotland as well? See our page for Glasgow.