What Should Landlords Do About Bed Bugs in Rental Properties?

Act on the Report, Not on the Certainty

The single most expensive thing a landlord or agent can do is wait to be sure. A bed bug population does not decline on its own while a host is present, and every week of delay widens the scope from one bed to one room to two.

An inspection is comparatively cheap. Treating three rooms in December because one room was left in September is not.

Get the Scope Right First Time

• In an HMO or a shared house, inspect all the sleeping rooms together, whatever is then treated. One room at a time circulates the same infestation around the house
• Include the shared living room, particularly any sofa in nightly use
• In a block, push for a building-level inspection. A managing agent is usually the only party who can get more than one flat looked at
• Ask whether anybody has changed rooms in the last few months - it is the most useful piece of history there is and it is almost never volunteered
• Include any room with a bed in it, occupied or not

Records

Almost every later argument about a bed bug problem in a tenancy turns on when it was reported and what was done about it. That makes the paperwork worth more than it looks.

• The date the tenant first reported it, in writing
• What was reported and what photographs were supplied
• The date of the inspection and what it found, room by room
• Which rooms were treated and which were checked and left
• What preparation and aftercare instructions were issued, and to whom
• Any follow-up visit and its findings

Who is ultimately responsible for the cost depends on the tenancy agreement and the circumstances, and it is not something a pest controller can rule on. Where it becomes a dispute, a local authority housing team, Citizens Advice or Shelter can advise. What we can supply is a clear written record of what was found and what was done.

Turnover Is Half the Problem

A room that changes hands every year gets a new set of belongings, a new set of visitors, and a gap in between when nobody is there to report anything. An empty property is not a cleared property - bed bugs survive months without a host, and longer in a cool room.

1. Inspect between tenancies, while the property is empty and every edge is reachable. It is the best moment there is and it is usually skipped
2. Do not move a mattress, headboard or chair from a room that has had bed bugs into another property
3. Fit encasements on landlord-owned mattresses and bases after any treatment - it seals the seams and makes future checks a glance
4. Give incoming tenants a line about reporting bites or insects early, so the first report comes in weeks rather than months

What To Tell a Tenant Who Has Reported It

• Keep sleeping in the same room until it is treated
• Do not move belongings into another room or a communal area
• Do not spray anything
• Do not throw furniture out
• Hot wash and hot tumble dry the bedding, and keep it sealed
• Photograph what they found, where they found it