Fire safety law in Edinburgh is not the Fire Safety Order. It sits under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The person who has to carry out the fire safety risk assessment is the duty holder under that Act, not the “responsible person” of the English order. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority, and its guidance is plain that anyone in control of premises, to any extent, has a responsibility to keep the people in them safe from fire.
City of Edinburgh Council licenses houses in multiple occupation. In Scotland an HMO is a home for three or more unrelated people, and the number of storeys is not part of the test. That threshold is lower than the English mandatory scheme, which starts at five. Fees run by the number of occupants and the length of the licence, from about £164 for a small one-year licence upwards. Check the current fee and conditions on City of Edinburgh Council’s HMO licence page.
Edinburgh has gone further than most of Scotland on short-term lets. The whole council area is a short-term let control area, and it has been since 5 September 2022. That is the part of the city’s law that catches owners out, and it is set out below.
The common stair is the escape route
Around two-thirds of Edinburgh homes are flats, the highest share in Scotland after Glasgow. Most of them are tenements. The common stair is the escape route for every flat on it, so the assessment has to cover that shared stair, the doors off it, and whether the fire stopping between the flats is actually there. An assessment that only looks inside one flat leaves the escape route unassessed. Who controls the stair is a real question, because factors, owners’ associations and individual owners all turn up in practice. Get the name in writing before you appoint an assessor, or the report will name the wrong duty holder and the stair will be left out.
A city of short-term lets
Because the whole city is a control area, using a home that is not someone’s main residence as a short-term let is a change of use that needs planning permission. On top of that, every short-term let in Scotland needs a licence from the council, and Edinburgh operators had to hold one by 1 January 2025. The council counted more than 5,000 short-term lets in the city, concentrated in the City Centre and Leith wards but present in every ward. A let in the Old Town can need the short-term let licence and, if it is shared, the HMO licence as well. The licence will not be granted until the property meets the fire safety standard, so the fire safety risk assessment comes first. Say on the form whether the premises are a short-term let, an HMO, or both, so the assessor knows how the building is used.
Three occupiers, not five
English pages talk about mandatory HMO licensing at five occupiers. That number is wrong in Edinburgh. Three unrelated people sharing is an HMO here, and a flat that would be unlicensed in Manchester can need a licence in Marchmont or Newington. The fire safety risk assessment sits alongside that licence. Every landlord in Scotland also has to be on the Scottish Landlord Register, which is a third duty, separate from the HMO licence and from the assessment.
Who enforces fire safety law in Edinburgh
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority for most premises in the city. They can inspect, serve enforcement notices and prohibit the use of a building. They will ask for the fire safety risk assessment, and they audit whether you have done it rather than write it for you. Because an HMO and a licensed short-term let are licensed premises, the significant findings of the assessment have to be written down and kept, whatever the number of occupants. A verbal look does not meet that.
What an Edinburgh report should actually name
A report that could have been written for Birmingham is not suitable here. It should name the duty holder, the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, the common stair as the escape route, and whether the premises are an HMO, a short-term let, or both. If the header says “responsible person” and “Fire Safety Order”, the template was not rewritten for Scotland, so send it back. The English 11 metre fire-door timetable and the April 2026 evacuation-plan rules are English law and do not read across. Scotland has its own building standards and its own fire safety guidance, and those are the ones an Edinburgh report should use.
Checking an assessor in Edinburgh
There is no statutory register of fire risk assessors in Scotland either, so the checking falls to whoever signs the invoice. Before you appoint anyone, ask:
- What are your qualifications, and who awarded them?
- Are you third party certificated? If yes, take the number and check it with the scheme.
- What is your professional indemnity cover? Ask for the figure.
- How many tenements or HMOs like this have you assessed in Edinburgh? Ask whether they work under the Fire (Scotland) Act rather than an English template, and whether they will walk the common stair.
- Can I see a sample report? Read it for “responsible person” and “Fire Safety Order”. Those are English terms.
What it costs in Edinburgh
Price follows size, layout, and whether anyone sleeps there. A small shop or office is usually a few hundred pounds. A tenement stair, an HMO or a short-term let costs more, because there is more to walk and more to record. Get more than one quote, in writing. The national ranges on what a fire risk assessment costs are drawn from the English market, so treat them as a starting point rather than an Edinburgh price list.
HMO, short-term lets and the Fire (Scotland) Act in Edinburgh
Is this the same as the Fire Safety Order?
No. Edinburgh sits under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. The duty holder is the person who has to carry out the assessment. An English report with “responsible person” in the header was not written for this building.
I let a flat to three sharers. Do I need an HMO licence?
Probably. Three unrelated people sharing is an HMO in Scotland, whatever the number of storeys. Check the City of Edinburgh Council page for the fee and the conditions, and remember the fire safety risk assessment is required for the licence.
My flat is a short-term let. What do I need?
A short-term let licence from the council, and planning permission because the whole city is a control area. If it is also shared as an HMO, you need that licence too. The fire safety risk assessment comes before the licence is granted.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Edinburgh
Describe the premises and the postcode, and we will pass it to assessors covering Edinburgh. Say whether it is a tenement HMO, a short-term let, a shop, or a common stair.
Not in Edinburgh? See all the areas we cover. Glasgow has its own page: fire risk assessments in Glasgow.