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Vermin


Grampa

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  • 7 months later...

Hi

My tenant advised me on Monday evening that he has rats in the property and asked me to call the local council. I apologised and looked up the information on the council pest control section.

I called the council the next morning and they advised that as he is the tenant he has a duty to call them to arrange a free service for poison to be put down but that he needs to be in the property from 8-till 4.30 for the Pest control officer to attend. and would not take further instructions from me.

since then I have been backwards and forwards to the tenants asking them to call to arrange a date. he then said he called them and they asked for a £150 charge and he was not paying it. The council told me that this was a free service.

I called the council again and asked for advice on how to deal with the problem. They advised to look at the FQA regarding pest control and I advised the tenants accordingly The tenant sent me a tx back saying I was patronising him. He made all sorts of excuses. I replied to advise him that the service was free.

He then sent me a tx back to say that the rats were in the walls under the floorboards and taking their food. He also said that to take time off from work was going to cost him £150. I was confused £150 for the council to come out and £150 for loss of earnings?

Now the tenant has given me 2 weeks notice

I contacted the council again and asked if Pest control worked on a saturday which they did not, I asked was it possible for the tenant to leave a key with a neighrbour to which the Council replied yes a note could be put on the door to say that the key was next door. I tx the tenant advising that a key could be left with a neighbour...no reply.

I am really worried that the rats could damage my property but also angry that the tenants would not do anything to help solve the problem and has handed me notice wanting back their deposit immedialtely so that they can put it towards another property as they put it can not sleep in a rats infested house.

When the previous tenants moved out I advised the current tenants that I needed to clean the property to a high standard but the tenant said that I must not worry about the cleaning and that they would do this as they were anxious to move in. There were no rats when they moved in 3 months ago.

Once I had to go back to the property about 2 months ago for another issue and was astounded at the mess! it looked as though the house had been burgeled but did not say anything to the tenant as we all have differant standards of how clean our house should be..I just wished now I said something as I believe that this could be the reason the rats are there.

Council also say that if there is any holes it is not to be blocked up as the poison needs to be eaten for the rats to die and if the holes are blocked up then they could die inside the house and the smell is horrendous!

After reading all the post here I am worried that the tenant will take me to court because they had to move out , their contract is AST 6months. How can I get the Tenant to abide by their contract as a duty to care?

any suggestions/help please?

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How can I get the Tenant to abide by their contract as a duty to care?

any suggestions/help please?

You can't.

You can NEVER force anyone to do anything that they don't want to. Allow them to go, return the deposit, learn from the mistakes, clean the house properly, get the rats dealt with, affect proper maintenance ie stop the rats getting in and relet.

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As Richlist has stated.

Let them go....the rat problem is a sideline excuse to leave the property.

Incidently I have had a rat problem at Melboy Towers. I placed rat poisen down (£3) with a McVities digestive biscuit and the bait was taken. One week later the rat(s) have not come back for seconds!

Mel.

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Many years ago we had a mouse.....I know, significantly smaller than a rat BUT we put down poison and never heard from it again. .....UNTIL we moved house some 8 months later.

It was found dead, completely dried like a flat crisp.....behind a wall unit.

Most rat/ mouse poisons are coagulants. When taken internally they dehydrate the animal and when it dies shortly after eating the poison there is no excess liquid left to smell. Good luck.

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I had a scare many years ago when I put a tray of the blue posion pellets behind the washing maching as we thought we had mice. A few weeks later I was at home baby sitting while the other half was out and pulled the W/M out as I thought there was leak. I then went to answer the phone and when I came back the kids had crawed into the kitchen and were playing with the pellets.

As it happened they were ok after a trip to the hospital and a couple test.

But boy was I in the dog house with the wife.

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I believe the effectiveness of the poison deteriorates quite quickly and will be rendered virtually harmless withing just a few weeks......but its always best to get medical advice.

The kids pet hampster ate some mouse poison that had been down over a year......we expected the worst but it was totally unaffected.

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