Bedbug Control West Kensington

What You Control and What You Do Not

Inside your front door, the decision is yours. Beyond it, the common parts belong to the freeholder or a management company, and nothing gets done there without their say-so. That includes us: we can look at a landing and tell you whether there are signs, but we will not treat it without the agreement of whoever is responsible.

Your lease should say who looks after the common parts and how problems are reported. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, so if the wording is unclear, a solicitor or a leasehold advice service is the place to ask.

Putting It in Writing

If the freeholder has ignored a phone call, send an email or a letter and keep a copy. Stick to facts:

• The date you first found signs and which rooms
• Anything you have seen outside your flat, such as spotting on the skirting of the landing or a discarded mattress in the bin store
• What you are doing about your own flat, and when
• What you are asking them to do, in one sentence

A written request that was not answered is more use later than any number of calls. If other leaseholders in the building are affected, a joint letter carries more weight.

Treating Your Own Flat Well

When the common parts may not be dealt with, the edges of your flat matter most: the skirting along the party walls, the gap under the front door, and anywhere pipes or cables come through. Chemical treatment leaves a residual in those places that keeps working between visits. Heat kills every life stage in one visit but leaves nothing behind, so in a flat with shared walls we may add a light residual at the edges afterwards. Heat costs more than chemical.

Our guide to bedbugs in skirting boards and floor gaps explains why those edges are where they tend to hide in a converted or mansion block.

Before the visit, clear the floor along the party walls and pull furniture a little way out from them if it moves easily. That gives us a clear run at the edges that matter most in a flat whose neighbours may not be treating theirs.

If It Keeps Coming Back

A West Kensington flat that is treated properly and then gets bedbugs again within a few months is a sign they are coming from outside it. Keep the dates of each treatment and each new sighting, and send that record to the freeholder with your next request. The Hammersmith and Fulham borough page covers the wider picture.

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