Pre-sale preparation · Edinburgh
Pre-sale property preparation in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is a city of shared buildings. A large share of its homes are flats in tenements, colonies, conversions and 1930s four-in-a-blocks, where the roof, the stair, the gutters and often the drains belong to several owners at once. That single fact changes almost every maintenance decision made here: who authorises the work, who pays, who lets the contractor in, and how long any of it takes.
The short answer
Preparing a property for sale in Edinburgh means dealing with the things a Home Report surveyor and a buyer's solicitor will find: active damp, roof and gutter defects, missing warrants and certificates, and anything that reads as a repair category 2 or 3. We cover EH1, EH2, EH3, EH4, EH5, EH6, EH7, EH8, EH9, EH10, EH11, EH12, EH13, EH14, EH15, EH16, EH17. Lothian Property is not an estate agency and does not market or value property.
Postcodes we cover
- EH1
- EH2
- EH3
- EH4
- EH5
- EH6
- EH7
- EH8
- EH9
- EH10
- EH11
- EH12
- EH13
- EH14
- EH15
- EH16
- EH17
EH28 (Ratho and Newbridge), EH29 (Kirkliston) and EH30 (South Queensferry) sit inside the city boundary too, and we cover them on the same basis.
Areas covered include New Town, Stockbridge, Leith, Morningside, Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Newington, Corstorphine, Portobello, Trinity, Murrayfield, Gorgie and Dalry, Sighthill, Liberton.
What is different about Edinburgh
- In Scotland the Home Report is prepared before marketing, so preparation work has to happen before the survey, not after an offer.
- Stone tenements from the 1860s to the 1900s across Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Leith, Gorgie and Newington; Georgian and Victorian townhouses and basement flats in the New Town, Stockbridge and the West End; colonies rows in Stockbridge, Abbeyhill and Slateford; interwar bungalows and villas in Corstorphine, Blackhall and Liberton; post-war and modern blocks around Sighthill, Craigmillar and the Waterfront.
- Paperwork moves a sale as much as paint does: building warrants and completion certificates, gas and electrical certificates, factor details and any common-repair scheme notices.
- Cosmetic spending has a ceiling. Decluttering, a deep clean and neutral making-good almost always repay; a new kitchen before sale usually does not.
Local rules and responsibilities
- The World Heritage Site and roughly fifty conservation areas cover a very large part of central Edinburgh. Like-for-like repair to a listed or conservation-area building is usually fine, but changing materials — slate to concrete tile, timber sash to uPVC, lime to cement — normally is not, and can require consent.
- Under the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, where the title deeds are silent a simple majority of flat owners can instruct necessary common repairs and each owner pays an equal share. Owners can also require a share to be deposited before work starts.
- The council's Shared Repairs Service can help owners organise common repairs and, where a building is dangerous or defective, the council can serve a statutory notice and arrange work itself.
- Building warrants are needed for structural alterations, most window replacements in listed buildings and many drainage changes; a completion certificate matters later, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it.
How to go about it
- 1Gather the paperwork first — warrants, certificates, guarantees, factor statements — because gaps take longest to fix.
- 2Fix anything that leaks, moves or smells of damp before the surveyor visits.
- 3Deal with obvious external defects: gutters, slipped slates, cracked render, rotten sills.
- 4Declutter and deep clean, then make good in neutral finishes.
- 5Only then book photography and instruct the Home Report.
Pre-sale preparation jobs in Edinburgh
- Decluttering before selling
- Pre-sale deep clean
- Decorating before selling
- Kerb appeal
- Preparing for the Home Report
- Fixing damp before selling
- Small repairs worth doing
- Heating checks before selling
- Electrical checks before selling
- Roof and gutter check
- Windows before selling
- Shared repairs before selling
- The garden and outside space
- Staging on a budget
- Photography day
- Smells, pets and air quality
- Loft, cellar and storage
- Paperwork and certificates
- What not to spend money on
- Viewing day routine
- Timeline before marketing
About Lothian Property
An independent starting point, not an estate agency
Lothian Property is an independent property information and introduction service. We are not an estate agency. We help homeowners understand their property, their options and their local market, and — where appropriate and only with your permission — introduce them to independent estate agents and other property professionals who can assist.
How Lothian Property worksCommon questions
- What should I fix before selling in Edinburgh?
- Anything that would attract a repair category 3 in the Home Report or a solicitor's enquiry: active damp, water ingress, unsafe electrics, missing certificates. Cosmetic upgrades come a distant second.
- Should the work be done before the Home Report?
- Yes, where you can. The report is produced before marketing and buyers read it, so a defect recorded in it follows the property through the whole sale.
- Do you value or sell property?
- No. We are an independent property information and introduction service. We can introduce you to solicitors, estate agents and trades, but we never act as the agent and never give a valuation.
Other help in Edinburgh
- Property maintenance in Edinburgh
- Landlord property maintenance in Edinburgh
- Void property clearance in Edinburgh
- Handyman and small works in Edinburgh