Rats and wood lice - our rights?

buel10

Hi all.
we seen what we thought was a rat walking across our carpet last night. Our immediate thought was of worry as we have a two young daughters, one only three months old who plays on the very patch the ‘rat’ walked on. Later I caught it in a vermin trap I had bought for our shed.

I’ve been in touch with the letting agency and they said they’ve tried to contact the landlord for the go ahead to pay for a pest control company to come and take a look. The agency said they’d showed the photo to their pest control company who said that it was actually a mouse. She then made light of the fact slightly and called it a ‘furry friend’ but I explained that, from my limited knowledge, it would seem that they carry diseases anyway so would like it resolved.
I then asked if we had to wait for the go ahead before they would do anything about this and she said yes.

Are there no health and safety laws / rules that mean this has to be dealt with within a timeframe?

Also, we have had wood lice here (on carpets, etc) for quite a while but the letting agency said that there is no cure for them long term and insinuated we would just have to wait for the warm weather.

Again, is this correct? Don’t we, as tenants, have a right to help to get rid of these?

Doozergirl

Wood lice are a pretty sure sign of damp somewhere.   Does the house seem damp? 

I don't know about your rights as a tenant, so I'll leave that someone else.  

[Deleted User]

How long have you been living in the property and did you already have trouble with rodents outside the home hence the trap in the shed?

buel10

Been here since August 2018. The shed thing was only an assumption as there were holes in some cardboard boxes. I’ve only reported this this morning following last night.

The wood lice issue was reported last August.

Does this help?

buel10

Here is a photo of the rat / mouse;

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0GOJfDLX_0dv_v0aNJ9YWWRXg

davidmcn

Looks like a rat to me, though it doesn't really make much difference what it is.

Do you know where the woodlice are coming from? Pretty commonplace for them to wander in from the garden, doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with the house.

buel10

I don’t know where the lice are coming from. 

Does anyone know about what timeframe the letting agency has? Technically they could be waiting for weeks for a reply from the landlord? I was thinking along the ‘duty of care’ route?

[Deleted User]

If you had just moved into the property and there was a rodent problem then I'd say it's down to the landlord to sort it but since you've been in the property for over a year I'm not sure it is the responsibility of the landlord to get rid of the furry friends.  Unless your landlord is the cause of the infestation, for example, not making certain repairs to your home or your tenancy agreement says your landlord will be responsible for pest control then it might be down to you to get pest control in.  It could be something one of your neighbours is doing to attract rats to the area.  An environmental health officer might be able to help you pinpoint the cause.

fishfingerfriday

Find out where the rat got into the house. They usually get in through holes around pipework. 
Fill the holes with wirewool and then cover with expanding foam for a cheap quick fix.
Make sure no food including pet/animal is left uncovered or stored in open containers . Don't feed birds near to your home.
Make life difficult and not rewarded and they will go elsewhere.

buel10

Lover_of_Lycra said:

If you had just moved into the property and there was a rodent problem then I'd say it's down to the landlord to sort it but since you've been in the property for over a year I'm not sure it is the responsibility of the landlord to get rid of the furry friends.  Unless your landlord is the cause of the infestation, for example, not making certain repairs to your home or your tenancy agreement says your landlord will be responsible for pest control then it might be down to you to get pest control in.  It could be something one of your neighbours is doing to attract rats to the area.  An environmental health officer might be able to help you pinpoint the cause.

Wow, I'm surprised at this. I thought it would be totally the landlord’s responsibility? 

wilfred30

It definitely looks like a rat to me too.  Have you tried ringing the Council to see if they will send someone out to you?