Reporting Bedbugs to a Council or Housing Association Landlord: Barking and Dagenham

This guide is about the practical side of reporting. It is not legal advice. We are pest controllers, and who is responsible for arranging and paying for treatment depends on your tenancy agreement and on how the bedbugs arrived. If you need to know where you stand, an independent housing adviser is the right person to ask.

Gather the Evidence First

A landlord is far more likely to act quickly on a report that shows what you have found. Before you write, take a little time to collect it.

• A specimen, if you can get one. A bedbug caught on clear sticky tape, or dropped into a small sealed pot or bag, is the most useful thing you can have.
• Photographs. Close-ups of any insects, the dark spotting along mattress seams and the corners of the bed frame, and any shed skins. Put a coin or a ruler in the shot for scale.
• A short diary. When you first noticed bites or insects, which rooms, and who is sleeping where.

If you are not sure whether it is bedbugs at all, it helps to read what else it could be before you report. A report that turns out to be carpet beetle wastes a visit for everyone.

What to Put in Writing

Use whatever written channel your landlord offers: an online repairs form, an email address, or a letter. If you phone, follow the call up with an email the same week that repeats what you said. The written version is the one that counts.

1. Your name, address and tenancy reference, so it reaches the right team.
2. What you have found, in plain words: live insects, spotting on the mattress, bites.
3. Where: which rooms, and whether it is the bed, the sofa or both.
4. When you first noticed it, and whether it is getting worse.
5. Who lives there, and anything that affects how a treatment could be done: young children, someone with a health condition, pets, a fish tank.
6. Your evidence, attached or described.
7. A clear request: that the landlord arranges an inspection, or tells you in writing what they expect you to do.

Keep a copy of everything you send and a note of any reference number you are given.

What Usually Happens Next

Every landlord does it differently, but the pattern is similar. Someone will usually be sent to confirm the problem, either a surveyor or a pest controller. If bedbugs are found, the landlord will either arrange treatment through their own contractor or tell you that you need to arrange it yourself. Which of those happens comes back to your tenancy and to the cause, which is why it is worth having the decision in writing.

If treatment is arranged, you will be asked to prepare the home before the visit. That preparation is your part of the job, and a treatment done in an unprepared room is far more likely to need repeating. For chemical treatment, that means bedding stripped and hot-washed and floors cleared. For heat, the list is different, and preparing for heat treatment sets it out.

While You Wait

The gap between reporting and treatment is where things tend to go wrong. A few rules keep a small problem small:

• Keep sleeping in your own bed. Moving to the sofa usually takes them with you.
• Do not throw out the mattress or the bed. Moving it through the building spreads them to the stairs, the landing and sometimes next door.
• Hot-wash and tumble dry bedding and nightclothes on the highest setting they can take.
• Avoid shop sprays, which tend to scatter them further into the walls.

If the landlord has not responded, chase in writing and keep a note of each time you have been in touch. A record of dates is worth more than a series of phone calls.

If You Decide to Book It Yourself

Some tenants would rather not wait, or are told the treatment is their responsibility. You can ring us on 0800 955 1018 and book an inspection from £120 or a treatment from £220; the final price depends on the rooms and on heat or chemical. Tell your landlord in writing that you have done so. If there is any chance the cost should fall on them, sort that out with them before we come, not after.

The borough page explains how heat and chemical fit the two main kinds of home here.

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