Dangerous buildings

Public safety is an important issue to us all. The City of Edinburgh Council provides a service to manage and assist where a danger is identified. If you have seen some thing which represents a danger or hazard then report this to us. Action will be taken to remove the danger or restrict access to the area of danger.

A dangerous building can include all sorts of buildings or structures, in public or private ownership. A dangerous building/structure is where it has become defective: the most common defects include cracking, bulging walls, partially collapsed buildings, items hanging from a building, wind damaged structures, blocked drains, decayed elements of a building (particularly stone) or extensive ingress of water.
If you are not sure if the defect you have seen is dangerous, then report it and let us be the judge. We will make the assessment and take the appropriate action.

You do not have to report incidents where the Fire Brigade are attending as they will automatically contact us.

What to do?

If you see a dangerous building report it to our department straight away on our emergency phone number.

What will happen?

One of our emergency officers will respond to the call and investigate the situation. He will then proceed to making the situation safe to the public.

Contact Point

Telephone 0131 529 4892/4902 office hours 0830 until 1700 Mon until Thurs & 0830 until 1540 Friday
Or out of office hours 0131 200 2000 (there is an extensive voice message when calling this number, wait and report after message is finished)

Who are we?

We are the Property Conservation section within Edinburgh City Council. We have the responsibility to take the appropriate action to make a structure or building safe. The Council is the sole judge of whether an emergency repair is appropriate. Emergency repairs will normally only be carried out where danger or risk of injury is a concern or public health is compromised, in this instance the Council will take immediate action.

Further information

As part of a new initiative by the Council to assist private property owners to ensure their building is safe a number of leaflets have been published. Get your copy here, online;

Checking your building (197 kB)

Common problems (64 kB)

Organising repairs (72 kB)

Paying for repairs (57 kB)

Building maintenance - Your responsibility (65 kB)