renting ,landlord did not disclose bats in attic

CKhalvashi

There are bats in my loft, and I still use it as normal, including the storage of 2 old video cameras costing upwards of £100k each and only get dragged out once a year now!

There's no problem, and to move the bats on is a criminal offence.

CK

tbs624

theartfullodger wrote: »

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...

My bolding. Indeed. Anyione "intentionally or recklessly disturbing a bat in its roost or deliberately disturbing a group of bats" would be committing a criminal offence for which tthere is a max fine of around 5k

seven-day-weekend

I agree with others, just use the loft as normal.

Maybe the landlord didn't consider it worth mentioning as it is not a problem?

naturalwhitch

Hi Everyone,
so nice to see so many bat friendly people on here. If your not sure if you have bats in the loft there is a simple test you can do, pick up one of the droppings and crush it between your fingers (with gloves if your squeemish), if it crumbles it is bats, if it stays solid it is a mouse.
If you then have reason to belive they are bats, contact your local bat group, you can get a contact through the Bat Conservation Trust Helpline, and they will probably be happy to come out and check for you.

many people live perfectly happily with bats in their loft, most dont even notice. Bat droppings can be in situ for years before they are noticed, and there are different types of roost aswell. So if an attic is hardly touched for years on end then, one or two bats may look like thousands - so get it checked out.
Bat will use roosts year after year but not contimuously (less true in far southwest), they hibernate in winter and will often dissapear during this time, so if you do have bats coincide massive storage moves into the loft during this time. Bats will not chew anything but it is worth putting a plastic sheet over valuables. In winter this can then be tipped on the compost (excellent fertilliser).

Please Please do not do anything to persuade the bats to leave, not only is it illegal, but the reason bats like our houses so much is that we keep destroying their natural alternatives. 2012 has been a terrible year for bats with large numbers MIA, please dont risk harming struggling populations further

I like bats because they eat 3000 insects per night, so there are alot less to bite me!!!

seven-day-weekend

When we lived in Spain we had bats roosting in part of our house, and because we lived at an altitude of 1000 metres (height of summit of Snowdon), when they flew they were level with our balcony and it was wonderful to watch them doing figures-of-eight and other acrobatics down our little lane, swooping up insects as they went.

pimento

We have them in our garden at dusk. I think they're lovely. I don't know if they're in our loft or not but if they are then I'm pleased they have somewhere to roost. They're not causing me any problems.

art_for_arts_sake

Not bats, but we do have birds in the loft. We often hear them chirping away. they nest in the corner of the roof and do very little damage. I wouldn't disturb them as the bird population needs somewhere to go in this awful weather we're having :-) I equally wouldn't worry about bats.

DizzyDasher

londonTiger wrote: »

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

Just a quick note - not COMPLETELY harmless. I agree a bat would never attack or bite a human if it is just flying around. However, there is a very tiny chance that some bats carry rabies. This is obviously not a problem unless you get bitten - but if you do have bats DO NOT PICK THEM UP, even if they appear to be in trouble.

I know somebody who picked up a bat that flew into his office and had exhausted itself flying around - when it ran out of energy and collapsed he picked it up to put it back outside (being very used to doing this with critters the cats have brought in over the years). However, the bat obviously wasn't quite as knackered as it looked: they have very flexible necks and it twisted its head right around and bit him on the back of the hand. He had to have emergency anti-rabies injections, so do just be careful if you find yourself near one in an enclosed space and don't try to handle them, even if you think you're helping!

Apparently the chance of them actually having rabies is very tiny (very few dead bats found in the UK have rabies, and I believe mainly a rare breed and found in Scotland) - but not worth taking risks with rabies.

Gilb501_2

I found a spider in my room and the LL didn't state I would have spiders....Can I move out

propertyman

tbs624 wrote: »

My bolding. Indeed. Anyone "intentionally or recklessly disturbing a bat in its roost or deliberately disturbing a group of bats" would be committing a criminal offence for which there is a max fine of around 5k

But to use the loft space safely, they need some form of light, otherwise how do they see to NOT disturb the bats?

Is it intentional harm if they leave the light on by accident, or buy an Owl that prefers the Attic....... and eats bats:eek: