A. VASSEGHI - Assistant Professor, IIEES, Tehran, I.R. Iran
M. R. MAHERI - Associate Professor, Shiraz University, Shiraz, I.R. Iran
M. MOTAMEDI - Faculty, Islamic Azad University -South Tehran, Tehran, I.R. Iran
F. ALEMI - PhD student, IIEES, Tehran, I.R. Iran

In this paper guidelines are introduced for seismic evaluation of typical masonry buildings in Iran with the objective of directing the evaluating engineers to determine if there is any deficiency in the building that could pose a potentially serious risk to life safety. These guidelines deal with common deficiencies in six general areas consisting of building materials,structural systems, bearing walls, diaphragms, connections of structural elements, and nonstructural items. The common deficiencies in each area is identified based experiences from past earthquakes as those structural flaws which could lead to component failure and to partial or total collapse of the building.