Bedbug Control West Ealing

An Empty Flat Is Not a Clean Flat

Bedbugs can go a long while without feeding, so a few weeks of the flat standing empty will not see them off. They sit in the mattress you supplied, the bed frame, the sofa and the skirting, and the first people to sleep there are the next tenants.

If the outgoing West Ealing tenant mentioned bites, or the check-out report notes spotting on a mattress, treat that as the warning it is. An inspection from £120 tells you whether there is anything there before you pay for treatment.

Arranging It When You Cannot Be There

1. Ring us with the layout. Number of bedrooms, which furniture is yours, and what the check-out found. The price is given on the phone.
2. Sort out the keys. An agent, a neighbour or a key safe. We need someone reliable to let us in and lock up.
3. Ask for photographs. If the agent is going in anyway, photos of the mattress seams and bed frame corners help us plan.
4. Clear what you can. Anything the last tenant left behind should be bagged and taken away before we arrive, not stored in a cupboard.
5. Keep the paperwork. A written note of what was treated and when is worth having on file for the next tenancy.

Heat or Chemical in an Empty Flat

An empty West Ealing flat is well suited to heat treatment. There is little to take out beforehand, it kills the eggs and usually finishes in one visit, and the flat is ready to show once it has cooled. Because heat leaves nothing behind, a light residual can be put at the edges where the flat shares walls with its neighbours.

Chemical treatment costs less, but it usually needs two or three visits roughly ten to fourteen days apart. That works if the void is long enough; if a new tenant is due next week, it means their first fortnight includes our follow-up. Plan the dates with the letting agent before you choose.

Before the New Tenants Move In

Ask the agent to walk through after treatment and check the mattress seams and the bed frame joints. If you are replacing the mattress anyway, do it after treatment, not before, and not by dragging the old one down the stairs uncovered.

Think about the furniture you provide. Upholstered headboards, fabric divan bases and second-hand sofas give bedbugs far more places to hide than a plain slatted frame and a wipeable chair. If you are refurnishing between tenants anyway, simpler pieces make the next check quicker for whoever does it. Bring new furniture in after treatment, never before.

Who arranges and pays when bedbugs appear during a tenancy depends on the agreement and the cause, and we are not legal advisers. What we can say is that treating in the void takes the question off the table for the start of the next one. For shared and multi-let property, see our London guide to HMOs and serviced apartments, and for Ealing more widely the borough page.

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