Mice in rented house

[CammieP]

Our lease says that pests and vermin on our rented house are our responsibility to get rid of, only if they are caused by something we did or neglected to do. We have had mice over the last few days ? our kitchen is perfectly clean and I can?t see that we have encouraged them in any way. But our landlord says that they are only responsible if there are external holes. Who is responsible for getting rid of them?

there must be external holes - how else did they get in?

Most leases do say its the tennants responsibility to deal with mice ect.

A few mouse traps won't cost much money tbh. I have had mice in my kitchen before and we live on the first floor! They only come in when it's cold tbh and I think they came in through the pipes. Bait the traps with chocolate and see how you get on. By all means see if your ll will reimburse you the cost of these, but tbh mice are not that big a deal so I never bothered my ll with them. I only had one incidence of mice in the 6 years I've lived here, 2 days and 3 mice later, not had a sign of them since.

In this weather, it is probably enough to have the heating on to "encourage" mice!

Thank you both for your replies. I?m going to buy some kind of trap and see how we get on. I didn?t realise it would be so cheap to sort out. It?s more the principal of the thing ? they should sort it out if the lease says it?s their responsibility, but it?s probably much easier to do it myself! They?re not generally bad landlords, but this is the 3rd occasion of them mis-quoting the lease at us, it?s very annoying!

Very encouraged by your experience BooBoo, I hope we can get rid of them so easily.

C

cammie, don't buy the 'humane' traps that look like a hole punch. They are expensive and don't work. Cheeky mice took the chocolate and walked off with it! Go to a hardware store and buy 3 or 4 old fashioned snap traps. Put them where the droppings are and be prepared for the sight of mangled mice in the morning :( They do not delicately trap the tail like in cartoons.

I suspect what the lease refers to is external holes caused by disrepair.

You could argue about it but I would take a pragmatic view and deal with it yourself. Much easier than have you LL come round at their convenience to sort it. You can get mouse traps from any DIY store very cheaply.

I'm afraid the cold means that mice are inevitable at the moment.

the sticky pad traps work best.

(some places wont sell them as they so effective...)

Sticky pads are horrific though, and even the packaging describes them as a last resort.

You could contact the council about this - they provide pest control services either cheaply, or for free, depending on your building - if there's a public health risk to others for example. A bonus for you in this would be that they are likely to identify entry points, which you could then point out to your landlords and request a refund of any money paid.

Traps alone may not work if you have a persistent infestation.

Thank you Stiffybing, we went for the poison in the end as the lesser of two evils. I agree the sticky ones are awful. They seem to have gone for now as nothing has been eaten for 2 days, but we?re not going to move back in there until the weekend, just in case! I?ve heard that putting wire wool around any potential entrances puts them off. I?ll look into the council coming around if they come back, on principal it would be good to get the money back off our landlords, even though it only cost us £14!

C