Moth Damage to Carpets in Rental Propery

ceegee

I have moth damaged carpets. I'll never have wool carpets again. I tried those blue light electrocuter things, but carpet moths are not attracted to light so they were a waste of money.

What I noticed, though, was that they would appear at about 9.30 in the evening.........up to 12/13 of the little sods, every evening. So I shut myself in the room with them, and squashed each them with a tissue. I did this for night after night and eventually there were no more. I think that after a few days I was killing them before they had chance to reproduce and lay more eggs.

Carpets are a mess though, underneath and immediately around the edges of furniture....where they just manage to escape the suction of the vacuum cleaner.

Moth balls and things like that don't work. All they do is make the moths go to another area of carpet/wardrobe.

Killing them as soon as they are seen, on a daily basis, is the only way.......then they don't get the chance to breed.

Tr1pp

rosemary65 wrote: »

Our agent is now saying he doesn't think we can "pin" it on the tenants - I think they should contribute (our carpets were brand new) - can see arbitration looming!

Have you said anything to the agents in there role in all of this, they also did regular checks (or claimed to) and also missed it / neglected to say anything.

If i was living in a property and had the type of wear as shown in the carpets on the other page I would assume its regular wear and tear due to cheap carpets. How can you distinguish moth damage from regualr wear especially if you have never seen it before (which i havent)

prudryden

Tr1pp wrote: »

Have you said anything to the agents in there role in all of this, they also did regular checks (or claimed to) and also missed it / neglected to say anything.

If i was living in a property and had the type of wear as shown in the carpets on the other page I would assume its regular wear and tear due to cheap carpets. How can you distinguish moth damage from regualr wear especially if you have never seen it before (which i havent)

Very easily.

mufi

prudryden wrote: »

Very easily.

Only if you know what you're looking for - we've got a moth invasion in our new (to us) property - with hindsight, there was moth damage when we moved in, but it was just a few spots around the edge of some of the carpets, and we didn't realise what it was. We're not a pair of youngsters either (far from it!), but clothes moths were something our grandparents had - we thought they had disappeared along with the dodo.

If I were the OP I would be a little careful - you could get a counter claim for your tenants' damaged clothing, based on the assumption that the moths were already in residence, or were brought in on the new carpets.

BestLandlordEver

Moth damage is definitely preventable and each tenant has a responsibility of informing the landlord of a problem before serious damage occurs. Rentokil are cheaper than new carpets! It's just a matter of hoovering thoroughly too. You can't prevent moths coming in especially if you want a tenant to ventilate a property, but moths will make their home in a carpet if they are undisturbed for long periods of time. If a tenant hoovers they won't make their home in a carpet. Good luck with arbitration.

hazyjo

Old thread dragged up by a spammer in May (have just hit button). Probably not worth commenting further...

Jx