Removals in Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone

Edinburgh’s Low Emission Zone has been enforced since 1 June 2024 and covers roughly 1.2 square miles of the city centre. It is a compliance requirement, not a charge — there is no daily fee, but a non-compliant vehicle inside the zone receives a Penalty Charge Notice.

The boundary. The zone runs from Tollcross west to Palmerston Place, along Queen Street through the New Town to Picardy Place, round Abbeyhill and onto Holyrood Road, down the Pleasance and back along the Meadows to Tollcross. The boundary roads themselves sit outside the zone, so a vehicle can drive around the edge without entering it.

The standards. HGVs, buses and coaches must meet Euro VI, in practice vehicles registered from around January 2013. Diesel cars and vans must meet Euro 6, typically from September 2015. Petrol cars and vans need Euro 4. Every vehicle in the AFS fleet meets the standard for its class, so the vehicle allocated to a job inside the zone is compliant by default.

The penalties. A Penalty Charge Notice starts at £60 and doubles with each further contravention, capped at £480 for cars and light goods vehicles and £960 for HGVs. It halves if paid within 14 days, and resets to £60 after 90 days without another contravention. Enforcement is by ANPR camera, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Who this affects. If you are moving into or out of the New Town, the Old Town, Tollcross, Newington, the Southside, Abbeyhill or Holyrood, the removal vehicle enters the zone. Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Leith, Stockbridge, Gorgie, Morningside and Portobello sit outside it, though a route through the centre may still cross it.

Edinburgh is one of four Scottish LEZs. Glasgow began enforcement on 1 June 2023; Aberdeen and Dundee joined Edinburgh on 1 June 2024. The penalty structure is identical across all four.

Stairs in an Edinburgh tenement

Only the ground floor is free. From the first floor up, stairs are charged at each property: £10 per person on the crew, per flight of stairs, for each hour at that address — a floor is 2 flights, so a first floor is 2 flights and a third floor 6. A working lift means no stair charge at all.

Edinburgh is a tenement city and this matters more here than almost anywhere else we work. Most flats in Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Leith, Gorgie, Dalry, Newington, Stockbridge and Morningside sit in stone blocks of three to five storeys built before 1919, and almost none of them has a lift. A second or third-floor flat is the ordinary case in Edinburgh, not the exception, which is why the stair charge appears on more quotes here than in most cities.

What the stair does to the day. A traditional Edinburgh stair is generous on the straight run and tight at the turn. The half-landing is where furniture stops. Wardrobes, bed frames, large sofas and anything with a fixed back frequently have to come apart in the room rather than at the door, because they will not make the turn assembled. That is why dismantling is priced per item and published — so you can budget for it rather than discover it.

Which floor is your floor. Scottish tenement flats are often described by the stair convention rather than the English one. If your title deed says 2F2, tell us that and we will price it correctly rather than guessing between the two systems.

Listed buildings. The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and much of the New Town is listed or sits in a conservation area. A piece of furniture that will not go down the stair cannot simply be taken out through a window. External hoists on a listed building require consent, and that is not a decision to make on the morning of the move. Flag anything oversized when you enquire and we will plan the dismantle instead.

Parking and access in Edinburgh

Central Edinburgh is almost entirely controlled parking, and on most tenement streets there is no legal space long enough for a Luton outside the close. The carry from wherever the van does stop is what stretches the day.

Bay suspension is arranged by you, not by us. The City of Edinburgh Council suspends bays for a removal on application, charged at the standard public parking rate for that street rather than a flat fee, and asks for a minimum of three working days’ notice, excluding weekends. We do not arrange it and we do not charge for it. What we will do is tell you honestly whether your street needs one — on a wide residential road in Corstorphine or Colinton it usually does not, and on Marchmont Road, in Leith or anywhere in the New Town it usually does. Apply early; suspensions are not same-day.

Tram tracks. Princes Street and Leith Walk carry tram lines and nothing stops on the tracks. If your address is on either, the vehicle stops on a side street and the carry gets longer. Tell us when you book so the time is in the estimate.

Setts and the Old Town. The Royal Mile, the Grassmarket, Circus Lane, Dean Village and the closes running off them are setts, often steep, with restricted vehicle access hours. Those jobs are planned around a smaller vehicle and a longer carry, not a bigger vehicle.

The five facts we need. The floor at both addresses. Whether there is a lift and whether it is in service. How far the nearest legal stopping point is from the door. Any permit zone hours or loading restriction. Anything oversized. Those five give you a realistic estimate instead of an optimistic one.

Access by neighbourhood

Access in Edinburgh varies more by neighbourhood than by distance. These are the notes our crews plan from.

Furniture dismantling and reassembly

Dismantling is charged per item at a published rate rather than folded into the hourly rate, so customers who do not need it are not paying for it. Every dismantling or reassembly booking has a £90 minimum. In Edinburgh this is not an optional extra as often as it is elsewhere — a tenement half-landing stops most wardrobes and many bed frames, so the question is usually not whether something comes apart but when.

Ten questions about moving in Edinburgh