renting ,landlord did not disclose bats in attic

peachypoos

my son g/f has not long rented a house thro agent
just found out bats are in attic, land lady just told her she knew they were there, but never disclosed it till today, when g/f rang her to say just opened attic and pile of dropping fell out,, when she went to store stuff in attic,
agent never mentioned it either,
so she does not want to stay there but has still about 5 months tenency left,
anyone advice what action she can take, if she had known bats were there, she never would have moved in because now she can not use attic, one of reasons she rented house ,

BitterAndTwisted

What action can she take? None if the landlady is unwilling to negotiate a mutual surrender. If the landlady does agree to this your son's g/f should fully expect to pay for the landlady's costs in finding a replacement tenant.

Bats are a protected species in this country so she should not take things into her own hands and try to gt rid of them herself.

peachypoos

yes she knows bats are protected but is not happy as it was not disclosed to her till today, and if she had known she would not have rented house,
is it right landlady did not disclose this , nor did the agent know,
also she is getting dropping down into living room now from chimney
its not her job to do anything, but landlady knew about bats and never disclosed it,

Werdnal

TBH, we have bats in our loftspace, and they cause no damage, noise etc. They will not chew or cause any problems to things stored in the loft area. Even their droppings are dry and do not stain or taint anything. If GF is concerned, a few plastic sheets over anything she wants to store should keep things clean and safe.

Is she 100% sure its bat droppings? Could be mice - they will chew and damage things, so she needs to find out for sure.

There are heavy penalties for disturbing bats, so do not be tempted to do anything to move them yourselves

Tigsteroonie

Prior to renting, did son's g/f ask whether she could use the attic for storage? It could be that the L/L never thought that it would be used, and so didn't think that any comment about the contents of the attic was required.

tbs624

OP - get your son's GF to contact the Bat Trust at bats.org.uk They can talk though any of her concerns about the bats' presence at the property.

She may still be able to use some of the loftspace.

theartfullodger

Two choices..

A) Tell the authorities & bat charities & I hazard the bats & their droppings will be there for months....

2) (as long as you've told nobody already) stick a load of very bright lights in loft & hey presto, no bats in 4 days. Problem if there's babies. Illegal of course...

Barneysmom

theartfullodger wrote: »

Two choices..

A) Tell the authorities & bat charities & I hazard the bats & their droppings will be there for months....

2) (as long as you've told nobody already) stick a load of very bright lights in loft & hey presto, no bats in 4 days. Problem if there's babies. Illegal of course...

Don't even think about doing that with the lights! That's completely cruel, it's no the bat's fault, they were there first.

whalster

think yourself lucky she is still s girlfriend if it goes any further motherninlaws have a strange way of turning into old bats ! however I count myself so lucky mine flies in and sweeps out all my rental property with her transport.

Only Joking

Debt_Free_Chick

peachypoos wrote: »

my son g/f has not long rented a house thro agent
just found out bats are in attic, land lady just told her she knew they were there, but never disclosed it till today, when g/f rang her to say just opened attic and pile of dropping fell out,, when she went to store stuff in attic,
agent never mentioned it either,
so she does not want to stay there but has still about 5 months tenency left,
anyone advice what action she can take, if she had known bats were there, she never would have moved in because now she can not use attic, one of reasons she rented house ,

I'm not sure what the problem is.

You can still use the attic. You simply have to store things in boxes, which is surely normal with an attic anyway.

I have bats in my attic and fully utilise it as normal.

londonTiger

girls are irrationally fearful of bats, they do not bite or eat humans, although they look a bit strange and ugly looking, theyre entirely harmless