Bed bugs in rented homes: Whose responsibility is it – tenant or landlord?
There has been a surge in bed bug reports since the deputy mayor of Paris sombrely announced “no one is safe” from the blood-sucking creatures.
Paris is grappling with a well-documented outbreak as experts warn things could be just as bad in London.
Luton Council said it is fielding an “alarming number” of calls to tackle bed bugs, while one pest control company told Sky News call-outs had risen by 17% in one month.
But if you rent a property and you’ve got a bed bug infestation at home, whose responsibility is it to deal with? Can you pass it on to your landlord or are you left picking up the bill?
Here’s what you need to know.
Who must deal with bedbugs – the landlord or tenant?
Bedbugs are not covered by a specific piece of legislation in the UK.
But landlords must deal with the bed bugs if the property was infested when a tenant moved in, Blago Manov, director of Bed Bug Hunters, told Sky News.
If a tenant brings the bugs into the house – whether that’s on luggage, clothes, secondhand furniture or via a visitor – it’s down to them to deal with the problem.
Al McClenahan from Justice for Tenants told Sky News bed bugs present “a more complex situation” than larger pests such as mice.
But the general rule is that bed bugs in the property at the start of the tenancy are the landlord’s problem, and those introduced later are the tenant’s responsibility.
There is another scenario where the landlord may be responsible: “If the rental property is in an area that requires a licence from the council, then the licence may require that the landlord keep the property pest-free, in which case they would have an obligation to get rid of the bed bugs.
“You can tell if a property is licenced, as a certificate will likely be hung in the entrance hallway,” he added.
Pest control treats an apartment against bed bugs in Paris
What if the landlord and tenant disagree over who is responsible?
These disagreements are common, Mr Manov said.
Pest control companies are able to determine how long the infestation has been there – and therefore who is responsible.
They do this by looking at the number of eggs and bugs there are. Because there is a pattern to the creatures’ reproduction, they can work out by the numbers how long they have been there.
“If we determined that the bed bugs were there for more than five or six months, and the tenant moved in a week or two weeks ago, our report could be used by the tenants to claim the money for the treatment from the landlord,” Mr Manov said.
Disagreements can also be addressed by going to the local council who can send someone to investigate. If they find the landlord is responsible, they will be forced to pay.
Sometimes it is not clear-cut who should take responsibility, Mr Manov said. It is possible to pinpoint the age of the infestation “plus or minus one month” and sometimes it will not be obvious if that falls before or after a tenant moved in.
In those cases, sometimes the tenant and landlord will split the bill – but other times the dispute ends up in court.
Mr McClenahan said if you need advice on what you can do if your landlord refuses to act, or want clarification on whether your property is licenced, it is best to contact your local council’s private rented sector enforcement team.
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Inside a home infested with bed bugs
What about council properties?
Most councils will provide bedbug treatment, and if you are a council tenant it may be free – this varies by local authority but should be listed alongside pest control prices on their website.
Councils, like private landlords and housing associations, are obliged to make sure properties are safe and clean when tenants move in, and this should include checking for bed bugs.
While councils offer free or cheaper pest treatment than private companies, Mr Manov warned it’s also less effective as they use insecticides, which slowly poison the bugs and often need more than one treatment.
What should you do if you’re moving into a rental property?
Check for bed bugs – particularly if you’re moving into a furnished place.
Bed bugs like wood, so inspect the bedframe and headboard closely, Mr Manov said.
Checking for bugs is also important if you are moving into a houseshare where other people already live.
If the current tenants don’t react to bed bugs – and 30% of the population doesn’t – there may be an infestation they don’t know about.
In a shared house, if all the tenants are on the same contract and bed bugs are introduced partway through, it would be the joint responsibility of the tenants to get rid of them, Mr McClenahan said.
But in a shared property where each tenant has an individual contract for their room, if one tenant introduced bed bugs and they spread to another person’s room, it would be the landlord’s responsibility to resolve, he said.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
Virginia Giuffre says she has days to live
Emails between Andrew and Epstein revealed
He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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