Bedbug Inspections Southwark

The Question an Inspection Answers Here

What an inspection involves, and the order we search in, is on our London inspections page for the full explanation. This page is about two situations where the answer matters more than usual: a flat share where every bedroom belongs to someone different, and an estate flat where the problem may not stop at the front door. In both, the useful result is a map of which rooms and which flats are involved, and who needs to act.

If you would rather check first yourself, our Peckham page explains how to go round each room with a torch. An inspection is for when that has left you unsure, or when other people need an answer they will accept.

Flat Shares: Every Room, Not Only the One With Bites

In a shared flat, the person being bitten is often not the one whose room is worst. Some housemates do not react to bites at all, and bedbugs move between rooms on clothes and bags. So an inspection in a flat share takes in every bedroom and the shared spaces, and records each one on its own.

• Each bedroom, including those of housemates who have noticed nothing
• The living room sofa, and anywhere a housemate or visitor has slept
• The hallway, where bags and coats get dropped
• Any room that has been emptied, or used for storage, since the bites started

Every housemate needs to agree to their room being checked and either be in or leave it unlocked. Settle that before the day. A locked room is a gap in the result, and we will record it as unchecked rather than guess.

A Result the Whole Flat Can Use

The written note afterwards lists each room with what was found in it, or that nothing was. That helps in two ways. It shows which rooms need treating, so the flat does not pay to treat a clear one. It also gives housemates something factual to work from when they decide who prepares what and how the cost is shared. We do not decide who pays; that depends on the tenancy and the people involved. Our guide to getting a flat share ready takes over once the result is in.

Estate Flats: Yours and the Ones Around It

On an estate, the question often reaches past your own door. You may suspect the flat next door, or the one above. We can only inspect flats we are let into, so in your flat we look closely at the edges it shares with others: skirting on the party walls, the pipe runs, the gaps around sockets and the frame of the front door. Signs gathered at those edges, rather than around the bed, point towards bedbugs coming in from outside.

That is useful evidence, not proof. It is still worth including in your report to the landlord, because only the landlord can arrange for the neighbouring flats to be looked at. A neighbour who wants their own flat checked can book separately, and two inspections close together give a clearer picture than one. Our estate guide covers what to say to the landlord and to the people next door.

Before We Arrive

The instinct before any visit is to tidy up and wash the bedding. Please hold off. We need to see what is there now: spotting on the seams, shed skins, the bugs themselves. A freshly washed bed can hide the very evidence we are coming to find.

• Leave the beds made and the mattresses where they are
• Do not use any spray, powder or fogger in the days beforehand
• Keep any bug you have caught in a sealed bag or pot to show us
• Write down who has been bitten, in which room, and since when
• Tell your housemates the date, or tell us which neighbouring flats you suspect

After the Inspection

You hear what we found at the visit and get a written note afterwards. If there are bedbugs, it says which rooms, which route we suggest and what the treatment would cost. If there are none, it says so, and if it looks like something else we tell you what. For treatment, an estate flat with neighbours involved is covered on our chemical treatment page, and a flat share with several rooms affected may suit heat.

Inspections start from £120. A flat share with several bedrooms, or more than one flat on the same visit, is quoted on the number of rooms, and you have that figure before anything is booked. Treatments start from £220. For the rest of the borough, see our Southwark page.

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