Bedbug Inspections Greenwich

Why the Void Is the Moment

Once a new tenant has moved in, a bedbug problem becomes a question of whose it is, and that is slow, awkward and usually unanswerable. Before they move in, it is just a question of what is in the flat. An empty room has no piles of clothes or boxes to search through, and anything found can be treated without anyone's belongings in the way. It also spares the new tenant a first week spent wondering about every mark on the sheets.

The voids in a borough with a lot of renting are often short: a few days between a check-out and a check-in, sometimes less. That is the reason to book the inspection as soon as the outgoing tenant's belongings are out, not the day before the keys change hands. It leaves time to treat if the answer is yes.

What We Look At in a Let

In a void flat the search is shaped by what the last occupant left and what the landlord supplies. We start with the furniture that stays with the flat: any bed, mattress, sofa or upholstered chair. Then we move to where the last bed stood, because that is where the insects would have lived, even when the bed has gone.

• The bed position: skirting, carpet edge and the wall behind the old headboard
• Supplied beds and sofas, including frame joints, bases and the undersides
• Built-in wardrobes and cupboards in the bedrooms
• Sockets, switch plates and cable runs near where people slept
• The routes between flats in a block: pipe boxing, risers and gaps under skirtings

A step-by-step account of the visit itself is in our guide on what happens during an inspection, and the London page on bedbug inspections has the full explanation.

What the Written Finding Is For

After the visit you get a short written note: the date, the rooms checked, what was found and where. For a landlord or agent that note sits in the file alongside the inventory and the check-in report. If a problem is raised months later, you have a dated record of what was seen when the flat was handed over.

Be clear about what it is and is not. It records what we found on the day. An empty flat gives bedbugs no reason to come out, so a clear result is strong evidence but not a promise about the future. It is not a legal opinion on who is responsible for anything; we are pest controllers, not legal advisers.

When the Answer Is Yes

An empty flat is about the simplest place there is to treat. With heat, there is almost nothing to take out and one visit usually finishes it. With chemical, the floors are clear and nobody has to live through the gap between visits. Our borough pages on heat treatment and chemical treatment go into each route, and treatments start from £220.

In a block, tell the managing agent in writing, and if you manage the flats above, below or either side, have them checked as well. A void treated in isolation can pick them up again from next door once it is lived in.

If You Are the Incoming Tenant

You can ask the landlord or agent whether the flat was inspected between tenancies, and if it was not, you can book one yourself before you move your things in. What to look at on the day you get the keys, and how to stack your boxes while you do, is covered on our Woolwich page. If you find something, report it to the landlord in writing with photographs and keep a copy.

Interceptor cups under a supplied bed can show movement in the first weeks, but an empty cup proves little; the guide to traps and monitors explains why. For everything else, see the Greenwich borough page.

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