Would bats in the attic bother you?

[lollygiggler]

Thinking of selling our house soon. We have a colony of bats in the attic. They cause no trouble but would this put you off as a buyer?

Yes

Absolutely not as we all love bats and love seeing them

However, can be potentially troublesome if a new buyer wanted to add a loft conversion or change the roof!

Yes

They are protected and the droppings are toxic so it would impact what can be done in the loft.

There is not a chance I would buy the house with bats. However, there are no doubt people who would see it as a distinct selling point. Maybe you need to target your marketing.

Not really but it’s illegal to move them as they are strictly protected so you would have to put up with them.

We would love it

Not at all, in fact It would be a plus for me! I had bats in my house growing up and I loved hearing them sqeaking away from my bedroom! Love seeing them flying around in the evening.

No chance

Yes !
I would become obsessed knowing how much shite was building up in my attic .

I love love love bats. But also love a loft. Can you board the loft so they can still stay but bits of it be usable?

Absolutely not I would run a mile.

I’d love it!!

I would never buy a house knowing there were bats in the attic.

We used to live in a house that had bats in the attic

Once we woke up to a baby bat on the stairs!

They were no trouble but then again we didn't ever have to use the attic anyway! 😆

I love bats and would be delighted to have them in the attic. But as a pp said, they are a protected species and any work to the roof/attic will need surveys and a licence as it’s an offence to disturb a known roost. Not that that stops unscrupulous people. Yes the droppings can build up but a plastic sheet underneath solves that problem.

I'd love it !

Ooh, quite mixed answers! We did have one fly out the hatch once so don’t use it as an attic. There is a second attic but it’s filled really high with insulation so not really good for storage.

Those that would run a mile - is it the “ick” or hassle of potential red tape for roof repairs?

It’s the ick AND the red tape

I wouldn’t. If you ever have issues with the roof, even to repair it you need to follow all sorts of rules about disturbing the bats etc.
A school a relative works at has a leaking roof, literally buckets on the floor of the classrooms, and the presence of bats is seriously slowing down the fixing of it.

No - I would enjoy watching them at dusk.

Idk, red tape and convincing myself I’d get rabies (yes, yes, I know about the likelihood of rabies in the UK, but still…..)

It’s not an ick about bats for me, I think they’re fab and I often see them in the garden late evening flitting between the trees.
But we have done a few loft conversions on our current house and previous properties and as bats are a protected species it’s quite a long drawn out process to get them to bugger off without effectively interfering. Plus their poo (guano?) is really toxic. So just wouldn’t want that leaching into the woodwork/floorboards in general!

I would love that

Those that would run a mile - is it the “ick” or hassle of potential red tape for roof repairs?

-Higher risk of bats flying into the bedroom windows whilst returning to roost and the risk of lyssavirus/rabies
-Guano and its dust getting into the rest of the house
-Lack of loft space
-Lack of option to extend into the loft
-Potential extra cost/surveys etc if the roof needed re-doing