First, Find Out What Was Actually Seen
Ask the cleaner exactly what they found and where: live insects, spotting on the mattress, shed skins in a drawer, or bites on themselves. Ask for photographs, and if there is a specimen, ask them to seal it in a bag or a pot. Ask them to stop work in that room and not to carry its bedding or vacuum contents through the rest of the flat.
Cleaners are good at spotting things out of place, but plenty of insects and marks get mistaken for bedbugs. An inspection starts from £120 and tells you what you are dealing with and which rooms are involved.
An Empty Flat Is Not a Clean One
Bedbugs can go a long time without feeding, so a few weeks of the flat standing empty does not starve them out. They wait in the bed frame, the sofa, the skirtings and the gaps around fittings, and the first person to sleep there becomes the next host.
Do not let the incoming tenant move in before the flat is treated and signed off. Do not throw out the furnished beds and sofa on your own either; dragging them through a communal hallway to the bin store spreads bedbugs along the way. Ask us first.
Treating Between Tenancies
An empty flat is in some ways the easiest to treat. Nobody has to move out, the floors are already clear, and there is no personal clutter to sort. Heat treatment deals with every stage, eggs included, usually in one visit, which suits a tight gap between lets. Chemical treatment costs less but runs over two or three visits about 10–14 days apart, so it needs more time before the next tenant arrives.
In a block, heat leaves nothing behind, so we would normally add a light residual at the edges and around pipework. Many of the new towers have heat detectors and managed fire systems; tell us who runs the building so that can be arranged in advance.
Records, Deposits and the Outgoing Tenant
Keep the cleaner's message, the photographs and our written notes of what was found and what was treated. Whether any cost can be recovered from the outgoing tenant depends on the tenancy and on what caused it, and bedbugs rarely come with a clear origin. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, so take advice on the deposit elsewhere. Our guide on when the landlord says you brought them in shows the same question from the tenant's side.
Tell the managing agent of the building as well, in writing. Flats either side of yours in Vauxhall share walls and service routes. The Lambeth page covers the wider picture for short tenancies across the borough.
Bedbug Control Vauxhall — Questions
Can I let the Vauxhall flat while treatment is still going on?
Not with chemical until the course is complete and the flat is clear. With heat, the flat is usable once the rooms have cooled, but we would still advise a check before new people move in.
Should I replace the furnished mattress?
Not automatically. Most can be treated. If you do replace it, do it after treatment, not before, so the old one is not carried out full of bedbugs.
Can the outgoing tenant be charged for treatment?
That depends on the tenancy and the cause, and it is a legal question rather than a pest control one. Keep records and take advice.
How quickly can a vacant flat be treated?
Ring us with your dates. Heat usually needs one visit, which makes it the easier fit for a short gap between tenants.
What does treating an empty flat in Vauxhall cost?
It is priced from £220 by room count and method, and the figure is given on the phone before booking.
Elsewhere in Lambeth
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Vauxhall
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Vauxhall.
When the Landlord Blames You
Why arguing over the cause rarely settles it, and how to get treatment moving meanwhile.
Read more →
Inspection First, or Straight to Treatment?
When the £120 saves you money, and when it is £120 you did not need to spend.
Read more →
HMOs and Serviced Apartments
Getting into every unit at once is the hard half of block work. How it is actually scheduled.
Read more →
How Long Does a Heat Treatment Take?
Why one London flat takes four hours and another takes ten, and what decides it.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Lambeth
Every service has its own page for Lambeth: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Vauxhall
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us what the cleaner found, how many rooms there are and when the next tenant arrives.