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Property maintenance · Edinburgh

Property maintenance 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

Property maintenance in Edinburgh covers the recurring work that keeps a building watertight and safe: roofs, chimneys, gutters and downpipes, stonework and render, external joinery, damp and drainage. We cover EH1, EH2, EH3, EH4, EH5, EH6, EH7, EH8, EH9, EH10, EH11, EH12, EH13, EH14, EH15, EH16, EH17. Lothian Property does not carry out the work — we explain what the job involves and, with your permission, introduce you to independent local businesses who can quote for it.

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

  • 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.
  • Most of central Edinburgh is controlled parking, and much of it is now zoned all week. A tradesperson needs either a dispensation or somewhere legitimate to leave a van, and the cost of that lands in the quote. Scaffolding, cherry pickers and skips on a public road need a permit from the council, cobbled setts and narrow drying greens rule out some access equipment, and a rear elevation in a closed courtyard often has to be reached through a neighbour's flat.
  • Most failures found here start small and cheap: a blocked gutter, a slipped slate, a cracked downpipe joint. Left a winter, the same defect becomes internal damp, timber decay and a plaster repair.

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

  1. 1Write down what you can actually see, and when you first noticed it. Photographs from the ground are enough to start.
  2. 2Establish whether the element is yours alone or shared with other owners — the roof, the stair and the drains usually are not yours alone.
  3. 3Get the defect inspected before agreeing to any repair specification, especially where damp or movement is involved.
  4. 4Ask for a written quote that names the materials and states whether access equipment and permits are included.
  5. 5Keep the invoice, the guarantee and any warrant paperwork; a buyer's solicitor will ask for it later.

Property maintenance jobs in Edinburgh

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 works

Common questions

How much does property maintenance cost in Edinburgh?
It depends entirely on access and materials rather than on the postcode. A gutter clean on an accessible house is a small job; the same work on a four-storey building needing scaffold and a road permit costs many times more. We do not quote — we set out what drives the price and introduce you to businesses who will price the actual job.
Who is responsible for a shared roof or a common stair?
Your title deeds decide it. Where the deeds say nothing, the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 applies: a majority of owners can instruct necessary repair and the cost is normally shared equally between the flats.
Do you carry out the work yourselves?
No. Lothian Property is an independent property information and introduction service. We explain the work and, only with your consent, pass your details to named local businesses so they can contact you.

Other help in Edinburgh

Property maintenance in other areas

Step 1 of 3

Get quotes in Edinburgh

Tell us what the property needs. We come back within one working day, and we only pass your details on if you say we can.

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