Landlord or Tenant?

The landlord side

Four Statutes, and What Each One Does

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 11. The landlord must keep the structure and exterior in repair — walls, doors and windows, and the drains and pipes. That matters here because it covers the defects pests actually get in through: a broken airbrick, perished mortar, a gap where a pipe enters, a cracked drain.

Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. The property has to be fit to live in at the start of the tenancy and stay fit throughout it. A serious infestation is capable of making a property unfit, and this Act lets a tenant take the landlord to court directly rather than waiting on the council.

Housing Act 2004 and the HHSRS. "Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse" is one of the prescribed hazards the council assesses. A property containing a serious hazard is not fit for habitation.

Environmental Protection Act 1990. An infestation prejudicial to health can be a statutory nuisance, which the council can serve an abatement notice about.

The tenant side

Cleanliness, Waste and Reporting

The tenant's obligations are narrower but they are real, and they are where most disputes actually turn.

A tenant is generally expected to keep the property clean and store refuse properly, and failing to do so can be a breach of the tenancy agreement. If an infestation is caused or sustained by how the property is being used — food waste left out, bins overflowing, rubbish accumulating indoors — that shifts the position considerably.

The other practical obligation is reporting it promptly, in writing. A landlord cannot repair a defect they have not been told about, and "I mentioned it to somebody" is a weak position six months later. An email or a message through the agent's portal, with a date, is worth a great deal.

Photographs help, and so does keeping them. It is much easier to show a problem was there in June if there is a picture from June.

The grey area

Cause Versus Defect

Most real arguments are about which of two things is true: is this happening because the building is defective, or because of how it is being lived in?

It is usually both to some degree, and the useful way to separate them is that the defect is the landlord's and the housekeeping is the tenant's. Mice getting in through a gap round a soil pipe is a defect. Mice staying because food waste is left out is housekeeping. Fix one without the other and the problem continues.

This is where an independent survey earns its money in a dispute. A report that says "the way in is a 30mm gap at the pipe entry on the north elevation" is a statement about the building, not about anybody's character, and it usually ends the argument quickly.

One exception worth naming: bed bugs. They are brought in rather than let in, so they are usually not a structural matter at all. In a block they are a building-wide problem, which is a different conversation again.

The council

What It Can and Cannot Do

Under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 the local authority has a duty to keep its district free of rats and mice so far as practicable, to inspect, and to act against owners and occupiers where necessary. Note where that duty sits: it is on the council, not on the landlord.

Practically, environmental health can inspect, and can serve notice requiring works where there is a statutory nuisance or a serious HHSRS hazard. That is the lever that moves a landlord who will not act.

What it will not usually do is come and treat a private rented property for free, and response times vary a great deal. Many councils have withdrawn free domestic treatment entirely. Milton Keynes City Council does not provide domestic pest control treatments and directs residents to the trade bodies' directories.

So the realistic sequence is: report to the landlord or agent in writing; if nothing happens, report to environmental health; and if it is urgent, getting it treated and arguing about the bill afterwards is sometimes the least bad option.

If you are the landlord

The Practical Version

Three things make this go away cheaply.

Treat the defect, not just the animal. A treatment with no proofing is a recurring invoice and a recurring complaint. The proofing is usually the smaller number.

Approve something bounded. What stalls these jobs is open-ended scope. A fixed price, or a survey with a fixed output, can be approved in one message; "we should look into it" cannot.

Keep the paperwork. What was found, what was done, what was recommended and when. It settles a deposit dispute, it answers environmental health, and it is the difference between a landlord who dealt with it and one who says they did.

We are happy to report to an agent or landlord directly with the tenant arranging access, and to invoice whoever is paying.

Short answers

Drain Blocker Questions

Going further

Drain and Rat Guides