Rotting body under the floorboards

Wordsmith

My tenants have informed my agent that there is a nasty smell coming from the living room. They are convinced that it is a decomposing rat and want to pull the floor up to find it. The rodent idea is indeed a possibility, and obviously I can't let them live in a smelly and potentially hazardous environment, but the floor is laminate and therefore unlikely to go down again so I will have to buy a new floor. The tenant has offered to pull up the floor himself, so that will speed things up and be a saving. I'll call in the pest control people to check the property.

My questions are, though:

The agent seems happy for the tenant to do the work himself - is there any legal/insurance implication with this?

Any ideas on how I can locate the smell without going to such drastic measures?

Planner

Do you not smell a rat?

Are you sure there is a nasty smell and they simply dont fancy a new living room floor because they dont like it/have damaged it?

I think yourself or your agent so double check the situation first before commiting to such a drastic (and potentially costly) measure.

robpw2

surely you have checked out the smell ...
im sure they are being honest ,,

i think its wrong to assume they just want a new floor

Planner

robpw2 wrote: »

i think its wrong to assume they just want a new floor

Quite agree. Thats why I havent assumed it.

Wordsmith

I haven't checked the smell myself as I live 600 miles away. The tenants have been very good in the past and I don't doubt their honesty, I just wondered if there was a less drastic way around the problem.

Wordsmith

Have just phoned the agent and someone from the agency went to check yesterday (they didn't tell me they were going to do that, but am very pleased they have). Apparently there is definitely a smell there, but the agent thought it was coming from behind the skirting, so the tenant was going to take that off last night to have a look.

Greenwellies_2

If it's from behind the skirting, it could well be the adjoining property.

I had a decomposing mouse under the hot water tank in my old house, not nice! (Worse when the water was heating up too!)

GW

Hectors_House

Wordsmith wrote: »

Have just phoned the agent and someone from the agency went to check yesterday (they didn't tell me they were going to do that, but am very pleased they have). Apparently there is definitely a smell there, but the agent thought it was coming from behind the skirting, so the tenant was going to take that off last night to have a look.

A dead rat will certainly pong and it can be difficult to find it.

I worked in a theatre once that had a dead rat down somewhere in the orchestra pit. The smell was unbearable and we had to take the place apart before we found it (it had been crushed under some backcloths that had been put in there for storage).

I hope your tenant manages to find it quickly.

ILW

It may not be a whole body, just the hands of that bloke they keep finding bits of.

robpw2

eww ilw thats sick !! and uncalled for

poppysarah

You maybe need to know if env health have baited rats next door.
Give them a ring before you agree to anything