Unfit Student Housing

geekgirl

My son found a house with 4 friends for his second year of university. They all signed the contract. They moved in a month before their courses started as they wanted it to be all ready and settled before they started work.

After one week they found that the house was totally infested with bedbugs. My son freaked out and came home, we followed directions from googling on how to wash everything over 60 degrees to make sure they were dead if there was anything in his clothes.

In the mean time the house was defumigated by the housing agent. It was discovered there were still bedbugs after the fumigation, so a week later it was fumigated again.

All the students then moved back in as they had uni starting the next day, that night it was discovered that the bed bugs are still there.

My son spent the night at the kitchen table as he could not sleep in a bed knowing there were bed bugs in there. Next day he started his lectures dog tired as he had had no sleep all night.

He then went and bought a tent and slept in the garden the next night.

He has spoken to uni support who gave him two nights in a hotel and has said that there is housing available at the uni.

All we have to do now is get him out of his contract. He has now gone into town to see if there are any solicitors that will give him 30 mins free to advise him.

After reading how there is an epidemic of bed bugs at the moment and the nightmare they are causing all over the country it is obvious that they are not going to be able to get rid of them easily.

Anyone here got any advice on how to proceed with this? Also as he has only been there for about 5 nights in total do you think we would be able to get back the two months rent that he has had to pay? All help appreciated, thanks.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Is he moving out because if this then? Im not sure where you would stand as you say there is an epidemic of them around at the moment and the housing people have done their best by fumigating the place a couple of times.

There are protective covers you can get for your beds now to ensure a decent nights sleep i saw them on the tube the other day but forgot the name sorry.

Equaliser123

You only have the "right" to get out of a contract like this if the house is not fit for human habitation or if there is a breach of contract which is not remedied.

geekgirl

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Is he moving out because if this then? Im not sure where you would stand as you say there is an epidemic of them around at the moment and the housing people have done their best by fumigating the place a couple of times.

There are protective covers you can get for your beds now to ensure a decent nights sleep i saw them on the tube the other day but forgot the name sorry.

Yes because of the bed bugs, most student houses do not have bed bugs, it is unfit to stay there.

The protective covers don't work because although they are called bed bugs they live on and in all kinds of surfaces in the house, but mostly the bedroom as they feed around dawn.

geekgirl

Equaliser123 wrote: »

You only have the "right" to get out of a contract like this if the house is not fit for human habitation or if there is a breach of contract which is not remedied.

Yes I suppose it is down to who decides whether it is unfit or not. If it was me I would say it is unfit as I wouldn't stay anywhere with bed bugs.

lynzpower

The old fitness standard has been stopped im afraid, and now Environmental Health officers use HHSRS ( Housing Health and safety rating system)

I am just looking at my notes and the HHSRS guidance notes and I can see that the chances of Category 1 hazard being met by pest infestation is 0. That is to say no one wll die from a pest infestation. Therefore the chances of someone saying that the property is not suitable to live in is slim to the extreme. Class 2 hazard is 0.5, class 3 1, class 4 98.9%. Classs 4 is basically, psychological issues, stress, minor injuries ( ie the tiny bites) These likelihoods are taken from the NHS ( ie the actual figures of real harm caused to people by housing issues, in this case pests)

The structure of the building should not attract pests, ( ie holes for mice or rats to wander in) but bed bugs can come ( even just one) on clothing or a piece fo second hand furniture. So the structure in the case of bed bugs isnt really important.

In this case, I recommend that the students take the advice of free accommodation with the uni, until another effort can be made to eradicate the bugs.

My understanding is that they would be expected to complete their contract that they have signed and no refunds would be due for this, although you may recieve some goodwill from the landlord.

lynzpower

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/hhsrsoperatingguidance Heres the guidance if you want to take a look.

geekgirl

lynzpower wrote: »

The old fitness standard has been stopped im afraid, and now Environmental Health officers use HHSRS ( Housing Health and safety rating system)

I am just looking at my notes and the HHSRS guidance notes and I can see that the chances of Category 1 hazard being met by pest infestation is 0. That is to say no one wll die from a pest infestation. Therefore the chances of someone saying that the property is not suitable to live in is slim to the extreme. Class 2 hazard is 0.5, class 3 1, class 4 98.9%. Classs 4 is basically, psychological issues, stress, minor injuries ( ie the tiny bites) These likelihoods are taken from the NHS ( ie the actual figures of real harm caused to people by housing issues, in this case pests)

The structure of the building should not attract pests, ( ie holes for mice or rats to wander in) but bed bugs can come ( even just one) on clothing or a piece fo second hand furniture. So the structure in the case of bed bugs isnt really important.

In this case, I recommend that the students take the advice of free (sorry for misleading, the accommodation wouldn't be free they would have to end their contract and then restart one with the university) accommodation with the uni, until another effort can be made to eradicate the bugs.

My understanding is that they would be expected to complete their contract that they have signed and no refunds would be due for this, although you may recieve some goodwill from the landlord.

Wish it were free!

geekgirl

lynzpower wrote: »

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/hhsrsoperatingguidance Heres the guidance if you want to take a look.

Thanks for this I will have a good read, much appreciated.

lynzpower

geekgirl wrote: »

Wish it were free!

You may find that the landlord has an insurance policy to pay for accommodation in emergency situations, although ill be honest, im not sure an insurer would see this as an emergency.

The other really difficult thing with bed bugs is that you need a food source (ie a tenant) to see whether they are still there or not.

Until you have ample food sources and that there are no further bites, only then do you know whether they have been eradicated or not. Bed bugs can live for some years without a food source.

Sad as it is, bed bugs is becoming one of my specialist subjects :cool:

geekgirl

lynzpower wrote: »

Sad as it is, bed bugs is becoming one of my specialist subjects :cool:

Yes same here, it is a specialist subject that I am not interested in! The landlord is getting £1500 from these students a month, he needs to sort something out. It gives me the blinking creeps!