Advice re: bed bugs?

[BedbugsHelp]

We are landlords of a house that has recently become infested with bed bugs, which have come through from a severe infestation next door. We let it unfurnished. The pest control firm assessed our house infestation as minor and recent. There are no holes or voids in the wall, but we have been told that they can come through tiny cracks that are normal in this type of house. Next door is being treated but the landlords don't seem too concerned, and we're worried it will not be effective and the infestation will return.

Our tenants have been extremely unreasonable. We have paid for ongoing treatments and investigations, working with pest control firms (getting lots of second opinions etc), the coucil, next door's landlords, lawyers, the pest controllers treating next door, our property manager, other property agents (for their advice) and of course giving almost daily updates to our tenants. The tenants have decided they don't want to live in the house and have moved out, saying they want to get out of the lease. They are also expecting us to pay for all accommodation costs, refund all rent they've ever paid, pay for the replacement of major items of furniture (that no one has advised them to dispose of), and for their time spent washing their clothes etc. It is over 20k at this point.

We have paid for all of the treatment and inspections (approx 2k so far), even though the infestation is not actually our fault. We take the view that as a priority we need to treat the problem asap rather than fight about responsibility. We have tried to be understanding and shown concern for the inconvenience facing our tenants, and have asked the tenants to be patient and to cooperate with the treatment. We offered them a slight rent abatement for the time they had to vacate the property after treatment. This has been met with anger, accusation and threats.

We think we have done everything in our duty as landlords (and a LOT more) and are really concerned now about what to do. Any advice?

We're worried about the costs of legal/court proceedings (although we're pretty comfortable that we have acted well within our duties and the laws). We're also worried that the infestation will lead to lost rental income in the future, as we would have to be honest with future tenants if the infestation had not been cleared and certified as such by a professional, for their sake as well as ours - this has been a complete nightmare.

Any advice, help or thoughts welcome please. Name changed for anonymity.

You "offered a slight abatement for the time they had to vacate the property after treatment"? But you also offered them alternative accommodation, right?

No, we didn't. From our advice and own research, alternative accommodation should be offered when a property is not habitable - i.e. boiler breaks, flooding etc. Can you direct me to anywhere that states that landlords must offer alternative accommodation for a minor infestation that is being treated? I would be really grateful if so.

The time post treatment was 6 hours a time, so didn't actually require them to sleep elsewhere (actually they were advised to stay in the property as the treatment is most effective when there are people there).

Would you be happy to stay in a property with bedbugs? I wouldn’t. I’d consider it inhabitable. Does your buildings insurance not cover this?

@agent no I wouldn't, and that's why we've done our best to treat this as quickly and effectively as possible. No insurance covers it, I forgot to mention we had gone down that route. If it was let furnished, we would have a duty to ensure no bed bugs. But it wasn't.

As one property agent mentioned - deeming a house with bedbugs to be uninhabitable would put the whole property market in disarray, as infestations are so common particularly in urban areas. We could have been within our rights to have left it to the tenants to sort out as it isn't even an issue of disrepair (we inspected it), but that would be pretty immoral and we obviously want to do the right thing. It's a real grey area. Do you have experience in this area?

How many times? Because if it is multiple 6 hour treatments then of course you should offer alternative accomodation/return of rent. What did your insurers say?

Once a week for three weeks, done during the daytime with a 6 hour period of vacancy. We've offered rent abatement to that effect (offer not been taken up though). The issue is that the pest controller advise against vacating the property for longer periods after treatment (post the hour wait) as it hampers effectiveness. So really to fix it they have to be there. And in leaving the property the tenants have probably hampered the efforts to date.

Insurers flatly say that bed bug infestation is not covered and is effetctively an 'act of god' (I know..). So we're on our own.

We'd just like to surrender the tenancy and be done with it (including paying for the treatment costs ourselves), but they're now making these huge claims we're not sure how to proceed.

Sorry I don't know UK law, but here in Mexico I had to treat my own bedbug infestion, it didn't occur to me to blame the landlord, same happened with a friend of mine in Canada, also renting. Bedbugs are appalling and I usually side with tenants against landlords, but not in this case.

First things first, issue a section 21 ASAP, and make sure all your ducks are in a row for it to be valid. If the tenants are being so unreasonable, you can be pretty sure they're going to start withholding rent, so the sooner you start the process of replacing them with reasonable tenants, the less out of pocket you'll wind up!

Don't worry about court. Their claims are ridiculous.

Thanks for all your replies everyone, it's been helpful to talk it through and check we haven't missed anything.

@ThePants999 thanks for the support.

Start the eviction with a section 21 or demand a proper deed of surrender. Consult your legal expenses insurers. You've got players - yes, early tenancy end but all rent back???