A Portfolio of Households
With several family lets, the job is less about one treatment and more about handling each report the same sensible way, so a problem in one house stays in one house. Each property gets its own quote, its own plan and its own date, worked out with the family living there.
How we deal with HMOs, halls and other buildings, and the paperwork on commercial visits, are on the London commercial treatment page for the full explanation.
When a Tenant Reports Bites
The first reply sets the tone. A tenant who feels blamed tends to go quiet, try shop sprays and move the children into one bed, and all three make treatment harder. What helps:
- Acknowledge the report in writing, and ask the tenant to do the same from their side.
- Ask for photos of what they have found: bugs, spotting on the mattress, shed skins.
- Tell them not to throw out beds or mattresses and not to move rooms, until we have advised.
- Book an inspection or a treatment. If you are unsure it is bedbugs, look first.
- Agree a date with the tenant that fits their work and school week.
Who arranges and pays depends on the tenancy and on the cause, which is rarely provable. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, so take any question about liability to someone qualified to answer it, and get the treatment moving in the meantime.
Furnished Lets and the Furniture You Supply
If you let a house furnished, the beds are yours, and so is the question of where they came from. Second-hand, hired or bought in a furnishing pack, check them between tenancies rather than assuming. Our guide to rented and hired furniture covers what to look for and who to tell.
When a family moves in with their things in cardboard boxes, the boxes can bring bedbugs with them. Can bedbugs live in cardboard boxes? is worth sending to a new tenant, and to an outgoing one packing up.
Access With a Family Living There
The treatment happens in someone else’s home, and much of the preparation falls on them: stripping and washing bedding, clearing floors, taking out the items heat would spoil. A family with young children, shift work or one adult at home may need more notice than you expect.
- Send the preparation list as soon as the date is set, not the day before.
- If a tenant cannot lift or move furniture, tell us; the Barkingside page covers getting help with that.
- For a house with several bedrooms in use, heat in one visit is usually easier on the family than a course of chemical visits; the heat treatment page for Redbridge explains the day.
- Keep the tenant told of each date, and of any second visit, in writing.
More Than One House on a Street
If you let two houses near each other, or a report comes from a house joined to another you own, treat that as one question. The Seven Kings page deals with several houses on one street finding bedbugs.
Using the Gap Between Tenancies
An empty house is the easiest time to look. There are no belongings to work round and nobody to move out for the day. A check before new tenants arrive gives you a clear starting point if a report comes later. Inspections start from £120; the inspections page for Redbridge sets out what is looked at.
How It Is Priced
Each house is quoted on its rooms and on heat or chemical. Treatments start from £220, and heat costs more than chemical. Ring 0800 955 1018 with the address, the number of bedrooms and what the tenant has reported, and you get the figure before anything is booked. If you would like to talk about several houses at once, say so on the call. For the tenant’s side of things, our Redbridge page is a good link to pass on.
← Bedbug Control Redbridge · Commercial Bedbug Treatment London, in full
Commercial Bedbug Treatment Redbridge — Questions
My tenant says they have bedbugs. What should I do first?
Reply in writing, ask for photos, tell them not to throw out beds or move rooms, and book an inspection or treatment. The quicker it starts, the smaller it stays.
Who pays for the treatment?
It depends on the tenancy and on the cause, and the cause is rarely clear. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, so take liability questions to someone qualified, and get the house treated meanwhile.
Should I replace the beds in a furnished let?
Not before treatment unless we advise it. Carrying an infested bed through the house and out to the street can spread bedbugs to other rooms.
Can you check a house between tenancies?
Yes. An empty house is the easiest time to inspect, and inspections start from £120.
Heat or chemical for a family house?
Where several bedrooms are involved, heat in one visit is usually easier on a family, though it costs more. For one room found early, a chemical course can be enough. We tell you which on the phone.
Can you quote for several houses at once?
Yes. Each house is priced on its own rooms, and we give you the figures on the phone before anything is booked.
Bedbug Treatments in Redbridge
Every service has its own page for Redbridge: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Commercial Advice
The guides that go into commercial bedbug treatment in more depth.
Bedbugs in the Workplace
The source is almost always somebody's home. Handling that without humiliating anyone is the real job.
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 →
Student Accommodation and Halls
The academic calendar is a pest calendar. Build the inspection programme around it.
Read more →
Bedbug Treatment for Care Homes
Treating around a resident who cannot easily move, and why heat is often the wrong answer.
Read more →
Can Bedbugs Spread Through an Office?
What an office 'infestation' turns out to be when somebody actually investigates it.
Read more →Bedbug Control Across Redbridge
Each area page is written around one situation we deal with.
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us how many houses you let, which one has the report and how many bedrooms it has, and we will come back with a figure.