Pest Control Charges from LL

confusciacat

Hi, I'm hoping someone can advise me on what to do until our local CAB is open to take calls tomorrow.

We moved into our basement one bed flat on 31st March last year. There have been loads of teething problems, the initial one being the thermostat not working so heating was either on or off, with no option to put it on timer. Because the LL is an utter nutjob, this wasn't fixed until late September when it started to get colder and we needed the heating. Then the hot water wouldn't stay hot.

Other minor things like dishwasher door falling off, damp coming through the steel girder in the ceiling of the kitchen, G&E account screw ups and our LL being totally crazy have made the past year quite hard work.

The relationship with the LL is 'OK', although what with her being a bit nuts, she doesn't always know what she's talking about and things take a lot longer to be fixed, sending an electrician when we need a plumber for the hot water etc etc. And not changing the account details on G&E so I overpaid by£2k on the first year. She's paid me back with interest so all's fine.

However, about 5 or 6 months ago we noticed that we had pharoah ants. Not knowing, initially, that they were pharoah ants we tried to poisen them in the usual way with normal outdoors ants. When that didn't work we did some research, found out what they were and emailed LL who was in the US for a month, which she promised to sort once she got back.

The long and short of it is, the 3 floor house upstairs also has an infestation, and did a couple of years ago which was cleared up, but obviously has returned. The LL also owns the house - she bought the entire property and is slowly converting it to flats.

On our renewal contract she has added a £50pm increase. She has explained the increase thus:


The extra £50 per month includes the ants, which after September or so, will continue throughout the entire house for the sole benefit of the garden flat. The top 3 floors of the property will be vacant, but still need to have ant traps and poison strategically down to be sure of poisoning nests that may thrive there in the walls and floors.

rent increase from June-March 10 months: £500
- cost of Ant proofing 4 floors: £350
- rent increase for the year .011%: £150.

The quotes for antproofing just the garden flat varied from £450-£250 for the year,depending on which company and which method. In the end, I chose the method which takes longer to start to work, ie 3 months to start to work. It has less impact on the human and more on the long term nesting behaviour of the ants.

So basically she's increasing the rent by £15 a month. Fine. She didn't advise she'd be doing that, I could argue interest rates have gone down so it should stay the same, couldn't I?

But obviously the niggle is that over a period of 10months we're paying £350 for her entire property to be pest controlled. Surely at most we should pay 25% for renting 1 floor of a 4 floor property. Possibley less as she said the infestation upstairs is severe whereas ouirs is pretty mild.

How do I respond a) to the email she sent above, and b) where do we go from here?

Advice really appreciated, thanks! We've considering moving out not because we don't love the flat or the area, but because she's such hard work, very temperamental and highly strung so we have to tread carefully.

Confused-acat....

Gingernutmeg

I have no idea about the legality of this, but there's no way I would pay the cost of the entire building being 'ant-proofed'. I'd personally resent paying anything as if it's an ongoing/recurrent problem then the LL was aware of it before she let the flat out, and should have take steps to control it before the anyone moved in. Personally, I'd be very annoyed that the LL hadn't taken steps to control the ants prior to me moving in, especially as it's thought that these ants can possibly carry/transmit staphylococcus and other infections. I can't really see why you should pay anything, since it's not as if you've done anything to cause the infestation. The LL does sound nuttier than a squirrel's fart ...

However ... if I had a good relationship with the LL and I wanted to stay, I'd offer to pay 25% to cover 'my' flat and 'my' flat only (although I'd do this a bit grudgingly, tbh). If I didn't have a good relationship, I'd tell her where to stick the charge AND the ants ...

Sunny2

Hi, I had never heard of pharoah ants, so looked the pesky blighters up. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2136.html I wouldn't pay anything towards it. Aren't they a health & safety issue? not to mention the damage they're probably doing to the property, so it's in the LL's best interest to deal with them quickly. Also, I would agree to the rent increase in prinicple, but not payable until AFTER the ant problem is sorted

cajef

confusciacat wrote: »

where do we go from here?

We've considering moving out not because we don't love the flat or the area, but because she's such hard work, very temperamental and highly strung so we have to tread carefully.

I think you have answered your own question in the last paragragh, I would be seriously looking for somewhere else to live, still it is probably worth finding out what the CAB advise.

*Louise*

I saw a programme on tv where someone had a problem with pharoah ants - and they were hellish to get rid of....took months.

I certainly think she's got a cheek charging you for the whole building to be dealt with.

Tbh, if she is as bad as you make out, I would be looking for a new place to live....

clutton_2

move on - she will only get worse - she has no right to charge YOU for getting rid of ANY pests - unless it can be proved you brought them into the house with you ..... blooming cheek

confusciacat

Well, we've started looking on line at places nearby..... we'll have a think about it over the weekend. Thanks for the help, at least we know we're not being too unreasonable!!

nobblyned

It is pretty irrelevant what she is attributing the rent increase to, ants or not. She is putting your rent up by £50pcm. You decide whether u want to pay this based on the market rates, or look at other options.

If it looks like this increase takes the rate above mkt rate, then u can try and negotiate her down rather than move. But the ant thing is a bit of a red herring, at the end of the day it is a rent rise, you decide whether it is fair or not.

Bungarm2001

If it were me, I'd move. She sounds like a bit of a nutter alright. Don't renew the contract.

As the other poster states, the ant thing is a red herring...she's just trying it on as an excuse to put your rent up. It's up to you whether you want to pay this and stay there or not, but I would be curious to know what your local health and safety officer would say about the ants...they sound pretty nasty

confusciacat

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for the above posts. We're not moving out, but it did give me the confidence to email LL stating why we wer disappointed with the increase yadda yadda, and after a couple of days she replied and said there will be no increase. Hurrah. So despite us both getting a slight attack of the guilts for diidling her out of £600 a month (except we're not really, are we?), everything's hunky-dory.

Thanks again!

geoffky

getting a pair of balls produces some amazing results!!!!!!!