Advice for private tenants

Tenants of private rented accommodation

If you live in private rented accommodation, your landlord is responsible for pest control. If your landlord does not respond to requests to deal with the problem, we can help you.

We can ensure your landlord takes action if you have problems with

• cockroaches
• mice
• rats
• pharaoh ants (or other tropical ants)
• pigeons (only if the nest is causing problems with mess, smells, flies or other insects)
• wasps (only if the nest is causing a problem e.g. blocking an air vent or gas appliance vent)

How we can help you

If we find your complaint is something we are able to help with, we will usually serve a notice on the owner of the property. This is a legal document listing the work that they must do to solve the problem. If the landlord does not meet the conditions of the notice, we can take formal action against them.

Your case officer will discuss the problems you are experiencing and will take account of your wishes. We'll keep you fully informed at all stages and send you copies of any notices we serve on your landlord.

We normally serve a notice about two weeks after our first inspection. We need to do a great deal of paperwork before we can serve one of these notices. The notice usually gives your landlord 28 days in which to deal with the problem. It may take longer than this for the work to be completed and the problem to be resolved.

If we serve a notice on your landlord asking them to carry out work in your home, you should contact your landlord about

• protecting you, your children or pets from bait that is to be used
• when and how the work is to be done. Your landlord must give you enough notice of the start date and you should agree the date with the landlord.