Spotting rats around your home when they are coming from next door is a horrible situation to be in. The animals are not yours, the source is not your property, and yet you are the one dealing with them in the garden. This guide explains what to do when rats are reaching your property from a neighbouring one.
First, work out whose responsibility it is
If you rent your home or business space, tell your landlord straight away. Removing pest infestations from a let property is the landlord’s responsibility, and that holds true even when the rats are coming from a nearby property rather than the one you live in. The infestation still affects the rental and the people living in it, so it falls to them to sort out.
If you own the property, whether as a homeowner or a landlord yourself, then dealing with the infestation is down to you. If rats are turning up near your home or business, here is how to handle it.
Talk to your neighbour
Your neighbour may have no idea the rats are there. The first step is simply to have a conversation. Tell them what you have seen and, if you can, show them where the rats are or point out the evidence that they are coming from their side. Stay polite, share your concerns, and ask how they intend to deal with it. How they respond will tell you a lot about what happens next.
Seal off entry points
While your neighbour takes action, close off any way the rats could get into your own property. Look for holes and cracks in fences, garages, the attic and the cellar, and block them up. Every gap you seal is one less route for a rat to reach your home, garden or business.
Call in the professionals
If your neighbour is slow to act, or does nothing at all, do not wait it out in the hope that they will eventually deal with it. That delay can let the problem grow and lead to damage on your side of the boundary. Call our rat control team instead. We can advise on the best way to clear the rats and, just as importantly, stop them coming back.
Contact environmental health
Your local authority’s environmental health department should be a last resort. If the problem from next door carries on, they need to be told, particularly if you believe the infestation is a danger to your health, to other people or to the wider environment. They can arrange an inspection of the property and decide how to take the matter forward.
Need help with rats at your property? Call our team. We are open every day except Christmas Day, from early until late.