What puts an Edinburgh business on a list
How Best Edinburgh picks and orders Edinburgh businesses, why payment cannot buy a place, and which Scottish registers let you check a business yourself.
Every list starts with a reader who has a job to get done: a flat owner on a Stockbridge stair whose stonework is coming loose, a family weighing up nurseries, a couple who have fixed the date and still need a piper. Four questions then decide which businesses are included and how high each one ranks.
Is the job their daily work?
We begin with how a business fills its working week. A joiner who once repaired a sash and case window is no sash window specialist, and a practice that does the odd house sale alongside wills and divorces is no property firm. Firms that do exactly the job on the list go first, while those with only a sideline in it sit lower or drop out. A stonemasons list is for firms that work in sandstone and lime mortar.
A record that lasts
After that comes public feedback from customers, left where anyone can read it. We set how warm the comments are against how long the record runs, so a few recent compliments cannot outrank years of steady satisfaction. Practical remarks count most: turned up when promised, fixed the fault, no surprises on the bill.
What the business says itself
The business’s own site and social channels come next. What jobs does it accept and what does it turn away? Where in Edinburgh does it work, how does it price, and which insurance, memberships or registrations does it say it holds? A firm that works on listed buildings should say so, and clear answers give you something firm to compare.
Money has no say
The order of a list is an editorial verdict reached on merit and checked again every so often. No payment can buy a place or alter what we look for. A business that is already chosen may add Pro for a fuller page, or Top for a spot among the first three, and both always show their label.
Checks worth making yourself
Anyone working on gas must be entered in the Gas Safe Register, and you can ask for the engineer’s card, whose reverse lists the gas jobs they may do. For electrical work look at SELECT, the Scottish trade body, or NICEIC. Extensions, loft or cellar conversions and structural alterations usually need a building warrant first and a completion certificate afterwards, and City of Edinburgh Council’s building standards team will tell you what a job requires. In the Old and New Towns World Heritage Site, in conservation areas and on listed buildings, ask the council’s planning service about consent before stone, windows or a flue are touched.
Landlords must be on the Scottish Landlord Register and letting agents on the Letting Agent Register, and anyone letting a home to visitors needs a short-term let licence from the council. A property factor has to be entered in the Property Factor Register and keep to the Code of Conduct set by the Scottish Government. Owners with a complaint the factor has not settled can bring it before the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland’s Housing and Property Chamber.
Find a Solicitor, the Law Society of Scotland’s online directory, lists solicitors and firms, and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission can look into poor service. Anyone may offer to draft a will, so ask whether the person is a solicitor and who stores the original. Immigration advice must come from a solicitor or an adviser regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner. Financial advisers and mortgage brokers need Financial Conduct Authority authorisation, shown on the Financial Services Register. Accountants can show membership of ICAS, ICAEW, ACCA or AAT. Estate agents are not licensed anywhere in the UK, so ask whether the firm belongs to The Property Ombudsman scheme.
Doctors appear on the General Medical Council register and dentists on the General Dental Council’s, while the General Optical Council registers opticians. Physiotherapists and podiatrists are on the HCPC register (Health and Care Professions Council). In Scotland, private hospitals and independent clinics answer to Healthcare Improvement Scotland rather than the Care Quality Commission, which covers England. The Care Inspectorate inspects care homes, home care and day nurseries and publishes graded reports. Anyone may call themselves a counsellor, so ask about membership of an accredited register such as COSCA. A vet should appear in the register kept by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and tattoo and piercing studios need a licence from the council.
Registrations change, and we have not looked up each one, so check it yourself before you sign or pay a deposit.