To sell this stinking rat hole, I mean house because we have rats?

[RedWineAllMine]

So to cut a long story short, purchased first house a year ago, have since discovered the bastards that sold it to us never told us of the rat problem. I found rat droppings tonight in living room, and knawed pieces of wooden coving and doors throughout the house. I have been away so noticed it when I came back. I have just paid £99 for the council pest control, they will be here within the next 2 days. I know it's rats because we caught one in the loft not long ago, but laid down poison and that was the end of that until now....
So, told my Partner we are selling or I'm leaving him once council have sorted the rats. I can't live here.

Surely you have some recompense with the seller/solicitor as there are undisclosed problems with the house?

You also need to block their access points

I'm so mad we wasn't told. Im seriously thinking of taking action against previous owners if I can.

That really isn’t very bright unless you’re planning on staying in the house forever, which it doesn’t sound like.

It’s mice that wee everywhere, they haven’t got bladders.

Fluffycloudland77 Yes they do lol!

www.victorpest.com/advice/rodents-101/myths

Are the rats inside your living area - do you see small black droppings around 4mm wide? Either way they should be able to place traps or poison them. The main problem is finding where they are getting in and blocking those entrances. Once you've killed and disposed of a couple of them you get used to them and it becomes very satisfying. It's their urine that makes a stench. I've found the sprays for getting rid of the smell of dog wee food for disguising the smell (that's if they're in your living quarters rather than just the walls and under the flooring). You definitely should get rid of them as they'll chew wiring and anything chewable as their goal is to get into your living quarters where there's food and heat.

You could almost certainly sue the seller for not declaring it, especially when you have the neighbours to back you up that he knew about it. The asbestos would be more difficult as he may not have known about that - if you got a survey done then they should have immediately picked up in likelihood of asbestos in artex given the age of the house. I would speak to some other plasterers to see if they can plaster over it - it'll be way cheaper than removing it.

How come none of this came up on the survey?

They didn't tell us about asbestos either, n it wasn't on the house survey report.

You might have comeback on the surveyor for that, it’s not the fault of the seller.

I lived with a muse infestation once (well twice!) I could hear the fuckers scurrying and gnawing. It was horrendous. Pest control and then a cat - not had a problem since. I rarely see dead mice from the cat so I think just his presence puts the off. Shame you’re allergic but a feral cat might work - do cat charities rehome feral cats?

Actually this is very bad of the last owners...surely the estate agent noticed? Or the person doing the survey....how on earth did they get away with selling it and no one noticed..there must be someone you can hold responsible.i think the previous owners should be made to pay

I lived with a muse infestation once

Out, out, you damned Pre-Raphaelites!

They were bloody irritating I can tell you. Getting rid of the corpses was a PITA but I do now have a fairly extensive , but bumpy, patio

You need to find where they are getting in first. There will be 'runs' somewhere. We had them in 2010 in the big freeze. It was an old house backing onto woods and we had a few mice in over the years so I kept poison under the washing machine.

Anyhow. My sink froze up in 2010. As I emptied the bowl as the water had nowhere to go it backed up and leaked out around the plughole, causing the plug socket under the sink to get wet and trip the electrics. I am fumbling around with my head under the sink in the semi dark. Picked up what I thought was a brown microfibre cloth from the bottom of the cupboard to find it was a dead rat.

I was hysterical as you can imagine. Council man came out and put bait down, landlord sent someone out to put expanding foam in any holes and it was sorted.

The only thing I would say is to try and prevent them rotting in the walls is leave a few deep buckets of water around with a way in but not out. So a pile of bricks at the side of a big rubber trug 3/4 full. The poison makes them thirsty. They fall in the bucket and cant get out and either drown or the poison kicks in. Its better than them rotting behind the walls.

Keep poison down forever if you can.

It depends on how much work you're willing to put it, but you can get rid of the problem.

Start with removing carpets and curtains, buying sugar soap and wash down everything - walls, floor, skirtings, ceilings, doors. Once you've done that once or twice, repaint. Go to a carpet shop and see if there are any off-cuts you can put down as a temporary measure until you can get new flooring sorted - they're generally sold off cheaply. If the curtains are cotton, you may be able to wash at a high temperature a couple of times although they're likely to shrink. Otherwise, have a look on ebay for some cheap replacements until you can find what you want. This is all to start getting rid of the smell...

You can put cardboard under the carpet off-cuts temporarily (keeps the house warm too!!). For kitchen cupboards, use a strong solution of Milton to sanitise. You need to get rid of everything and anything left behind by previous owner - cleaning the carpet won't be enough I'm afraid, albeit it would help, but the smell will still remain.

It's better to live with patches of new carpet than a filthy old one, even if it doesn't look great. It's what we're doing at the moment because we're renovating (we also have cardboard on the walls to keep the crumbling plaster in check! and odd bits of carpet on the floor in the lounge, but we're happy and love the house). The house belonged to a heavy smoker who had a log burner going 24/7/365, so you can imagine the state. It took us weeks of hard work/ cleaning/ bleaching /sugar soaping etc before we could use anything. Oh, and we still have mice but they're confined to the loft so we can only hear them. They'll be gone when work starts so I'm not particularly bothered by them (they're only trying to stay warm!).

A bit of elbow grease and fresh air, and the rat catcher ... you'll soon have it sorted.

I really feel for you OP, used to own a flat with a mouse problem. When I first found I had them I spoke to my neighbours (the three floors below me)- “oh yes we have mice” I was disgusted that grown adults (all probably 15years older than me at the time) didn’t bother to try and resolve the isssue. Anyway I HATE rodents and despite rentokill coming out yearly I still saw/ caught them. One night I couldn’t take it and moved to a hotel for the night, everyone thought I was mad but hated them!!! Used to sleep with the light and tv on hoping they wouldn’t come out. Anyway in the end I sold the flat and moved on!
From what I know about mice vs rats- mice are found where there’s a food source and rats where there’s a water source....maybe damp related or a broken drain under the hill?
Asbetos in Aztec- pretty usual, we have in our 1970s house- again if you had a surveyor they should have flagged it had you not known.
Remember things always seem worse at night- fingers x for the council shedding some light on the issue.

We had a rat in the loft and the only way I found out was as I heard falling debris in the walls and noises about sons room. We went to a private pest control as of all the council ones investigate where they getting in and just out poison down.

Rats are clean and will poo in a designated area, not all over the place. Shop brought poison has to be constantly eaten to work but our man had one that one sachet was enough.

Good luck, it is possible to get rid and have a nice house at the end :)

Sorry silly fone, not all council ones investigate...

If the council people only lay down bait I’d suggest getting a different pest controller in. I put up with trauma of rats in the loft and then when they came inside was beside myself. All the above advice is excellent. Get wire wool or wire mesh to totally block access areas. Get traps. Lay bait. Repeat.
I do agree about them dying in the cavity. It does smell awful. But better dead than alive.

You can get rid of the rats, it will just take persistence. Poison down, traps, block up access holes. If you think they're getting through/under a door then either replace the door for a properly fitting one, or bodge it with wood or wire net so that they can't get under.
Hire a skip and just bin all of the carpets. If they are holding a smell then you won't get rid of it so get them out of the house. Same goes for any curtains they have left.
Painting over the walls will help. You said a plasterer said the grooves were too deep to skim over. Have you asked just one plasterer? If so, get another couple round for advice and a quote.
You need to be proactive about all of this. It's fixable and far cheaper to fix it than move, given that you will need to declare an infestation to buyers and that's would impact on sale price.

We have just sorted our rat problem - worst two weeks ever though I didn’t sleep at all. Ours were coming through our neighbours house so you need to find out where the holes in your house are that they are coming through from. The council when they came to us laid down poison and identified all the holes for us, then we blocked them up with cement. Not heard / found anything since and the poison hasn’t been touched,

This is awful but fixable - get the rodent control people out, get the feral cat in your underbuild, empty out everything left by the previous owners, clean everywhere to operating theatre standards and live with the bare bones of the house (this can be helpful anyway when helping you to plan how you want it to look when you are in a position to sort it all out), and contact your lawyer and surveyor to find out if there's an recompense available for the pest/asbestos issue. The previous owners should have declared a known issue with pests and I'm pretty sure they can be held liable for not doing so.

Also, speak to another plasterer. There are no grooves too deep to plaster over but it will probably need two coating rather than skimming - a bit more expensive and takes a bit longer but it can certainly be done.

However it sounds as if the bigger problem is the fact you never liked the house in the first place. You probably need to seriously consider if you can ever allow yourself to be happy there, because there's no point going to the trouble and expense of doing all the work if the house will never feel right to you. Some houses are just like that, you never 'click' with them, just like some people. On the other hand, a year or two from now this house could look and feel completely different to you.

We had rats one Christmas couple of years ago - our house backs onto a large woodland with a stream so assumed they had come from there.

We could hear them running in the roof and under the floor.

We had the council pest controller out, we did get a quote from a private company but in comparison the cost was extortionate!

BTW - I have two cats who did bugger all, we had tried putting them in the attic and extension ceiling. They are too pampered and lazy.

The council guy put poison blocks in the attic, under the floorboard in bedroom and in the extension roof.

He did advise what would happen, the rats would eat the poison, get insanely thirsty, leave the area to seek water and then die away from house (hopefully)

We stupidly blocked any and all access points as soon as we heard the rats in the house (before we had pest control) so unlucky for us, the rat did indeed die in the house. The smell was awful and first off we couldn't find the body, our JR x dog did a great job of indicating the approximate area. Hubby put a camera in the ceiling and we had to cut a hole in the ceiling to get the bugger out.

Touch wood, never had any problems since, although I do still spot the odd live rat in the woods when I'm walking the dog.

The council use industrial stuff and offer re visits in our area so you should be fine, if it wasn't for the dead body it was dealt with mostly quickly and easily.

Haven't had time to reply to responses yet, but quick update: council man is on his way now! That was fast! Will let you know what he says

Feel very sorry for you facing this alone, but wanted to reassure you that its entirely fixable. It's all about making the environment unattractive to the rats. Fortunately, rats and humans go for very different things, the rats will soon give up if there is no food source.

If the previous owners had a cat, and knew to not leave out any food, it is entirely possible that they did not have any rats. Just a thought, as you going to mention the rats to any prospective buyers?

The smell will probably be the rather dropping or urine. We had a one rat in the house and it stunk.
You just need to get it under control of they have been left to run root.

My sympathies OP, must be horrible. I would be taking this up with the surveyor as it is clearly part of their job to check for pest problems and asbestos/damp etc too - surely you had a survey? Also did you not smell that vile musty smell when you viewed the house? You also say you did not want to buy it but your partner did ... well please bear this awful experience in mind for future reference. We have moved many times over the years, and made a couple of mistake buys when we were desperate/moving areas/in a rush. Now we say that if we have the tiniest doubt/weird feeling about a house we will NOT buy, better to carry on renting and looking or otherwise waiting for the right one. Good luck with getting rid but sounds like you will still be much happier to move.