Elspeth Rae’s Rant

I am preparing a BruceRae Blog and this should be ready early next year but I wanted to share with our Newsletter readers  a situation we are having with Edinburgh Council over the renewal of an HMO Licence.  We manage a double upper flat in East London Street which has had a licence to let the property to 4 unrelated people since the HMO regs came into force.  At this year’s inspection we have been notified that we can no longer use bedroom 4 which is on the top floor to the rear of the building as a bedroom, it must be a day room – the reason for this is that Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade cannot get their Fire Engine which has the large platform to reach that window down the lane at the back of the building.  I accept that this is a very relevant safety issue however if I were to let this property to a family of whatever number (you don’t need to licence a property if the tenants are related) they could use that room as a bedroom and no regulation can enforce them not to!

With the nature of Edinburgh’s buildings, in particular the height of the tenements on the High Street, the New Town where there are also double uppers should Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade not be given appropriate equipment to reach all these types of buildings?

If you would like to share your opinion on this with me please email me at Elspeth.Rae@brucerae.co.uk