Tenants rights

BeardedBadger

I'm a third year college student and I'm currently living in a house with 6 other lads. We recently discovered that there is rats living in our attic and venturing into the rest of the house sometimes. As tenants we are just wondering who's responsibility it is to get rid on this infestation?
We recently found out that this is a recurring problem as the tenants last year had the same problem. Please take into account that our landlord is an absolute d1ck and he's taking the girls that lived there last year to court for just less than 20,000 to cover damages to the house which they didn't cause.
Also I'm terrified of rats due to bad experiences as a child and don't think I would be able to live in the house feeling ad though rats were sleeping next to me.

Thanks for your help in advance

cerastes

Id say its the landlords responsibility to resolve, so long as you havent encouraged rats into the property by leaving doors open or leaving bins overflowing and not emptied or so long as you dont encourage them in by doing certain things like the above while the landlord is trying to get rid of them, probably needs a professional to deal with.

what location? check for PRTB registration for a start, I suggest you get a written letter to the landlord informing them of the rat problem.
How do you know its a rat problem? out of curiosity? whats the evidence its rats and not mice?
If it is rats how do you know they are venturing into the rest of the house?
also, I would not be using the tap water from the tank for brushing my teeth. Get a bottle of water from the kitchen tap (even clean that before you use it).

Rats dribble their urine and wiels disease can be gotten from it, Id be looking at getting out rather than trying to rely on the guy to fix this. Get your letter to the landlord all the same, if he's a douchebag about deposit, take him to prtb, as its a serious problem and you gave him some opportunity to fix it. I suspect such a problem would be viewed as a legitimate reason to leave immediately.

Tell him first verbally and in writing.

BeardedBadger

Firstly, thanks for the quick response. We haven't done anything out of the ordinary as far as I'm aware. There is sometimes food left out however it's never more than a day left there and the bins fill up fast with 7 of us so they're taken out regularly.

We know it's rats by their droppings in the attic and we caught one in one of the rooms and one of the other lads managed to kill it with a hurl.
Thanks a lot for the advice

cerastes

Dont leave any food out, or anything that encourages them near food, Id store food in a plastic container from a hardware store rather than chance rats pissing on it.

Id seperate rubbish quickly, ie any food scraps, make sure it goes in some kind of sealed bin, paper somewhere else, the remainder that cant be recycled (do you have green/brown bins?) rinse, and put in the general (grey/black) bin.

Might be difficult to motivate a few lads but I rather that than have rat sit on my face as I slept.

Tell the landlord ASAP and in writing preferably, if you're there less than 6 months, he could kick you out for no reason, other than not having somewhere to stay, cant say Id want to stay in a place with rats.

Its quiet possible years of rental use has encouraged rats somehow, if it isnt kept on top of by landlord.

I suppose you could set traps, but look it up, I believe they have to be secured so the rat doesnt drag it off and die in some crevice, although Id say its not your job.
How big are these rats? are you certain they are rats? I wouldnt be keen on going after rats myself.
Maybe there a local person with ferrets or a jack russel thats a ratter?
that might scare/kill them out of the house, although Ive no experience with rats.
Rat poo, can check it online but different to mouse poo.

If you stay there and manage to have the landlord get rid of them, clean the place solid, they could be walking on any surface.

BeardedBadger

Ya, we have all those bins.
Sorry this might sound like a stupid question but will there was recent Road works taking place on our road, could that have driven the rats to leave their home in the sewers and run to our attic for shelter? I'm not too well educated on rat migration. Also if we were to lay poison and kill off all the rats would more return? Would this be an ongoing problem until the house became some sort of 'rat-proof'?
I have to say I would be completely in agreement with you, I'd rather commute than pay to live with rats. It's a serious health risk and something which should have been addressed by the landlord last year when he knew rats were getting into the house. Also there is never any doors left open as it's a college house you can imagine how cold it is. We do everything to conserve the heat we hate paying for :P

cerastes

probably? I couldnt say for sure.

Anyway, not heating a place with 6 people, and no doors windows open, If it wasnt for the very cold, Id be concerned about damp/mould for my health too.
But it'd be your resposnibility to heat the place.
As for putting poison down, as you say you have no experience dealing with rats, Id leave that to the landlord or a professional, I cant advise as I dont know, Im sure its possible it would kill them or they might die somewhere inconvenient like under the floorboards and then the landlord could say you had no right to set poison bait, which would be correct unless he gave written permission.

BeardedBadger

We recently bought 600 litres of oil and the heating is on about 3 hours a day. Heating the house isn't a problem but keeping an old house that big warm is a tough gig so we do what we can to conserve the heat.

Thanks a million for all the advice, especially this late at night. I'm going to contact the landlord and the college accommodation office first thing in the morning and I may as well tell you now that the inspiration for this post was actually waking up from a rat themed nightmare.. Cerastes, you're a gentleman

Graces7

re why they are there. Rats have traditional pathways they use generation after generation and they will persevere. I once blocked a rat tunnel with plaster that they ate.. a crushed tin can worked

In that same house one of my cats fought and killed a huge rat and after that I never had any more trouble.

BeardedBadger

There has been a problem with rats here before and the man from rent to kill who came said he had been here before and the place that they had been entering the house then had been eaten through again so I think that is where the rats are coming from

Graces7

ArseMonger1 wrote: »

There has been a problem with rats here before and the man from rent to kill who came said he had been here before and the place that they had been entering the house then had been eaten through again so I think that is where the rats are coming from

Sounds right. Needs blocking off properly and permanently. Hope this gets sorted. The house I rented before this had rats running through the walls at night. The cats stopped them coming any further thankfully