Bat Surveys

[Eratta]

Hello there,
I have a question pls. I got an email from someone at my Housing Association this morning asking to do a Bat Survey at my property. The email claims: ‘I’m getting In touch with regards to a Bat survey that we need to carry out in order to satisfy planning permission, in relation to the energy efficiency works to your home’
Now, there are no bats in my area and just last month another energy efficient survey was conducted at my house and they sent a man who wanted access inside my house. He poked around and took photos of my fuel boiler. 2-3 weeks later I’m getting another email to do with energy efficiency which I relied to and told him there are no bats in this area. Besides why target my property alone? No to mention the fact that 2 months ago my Housing Assoc sent someone to put fire alarms in literally every room in my house. I asked the other neighbours and they said no fire alarms were being put in theirs. Looks like this is subtle harassment directed at me for whatever reason and I would like to know my legal position on this please. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Why do you think that upgrading your home to be more energy efficient or having fire alarms fitted is harassment? Are you being charged for this work?

Also, just because you’ve never seen a bat it doesn’t mean they aren’t around and they are a protected species.

This is all in line with building regulations and funded energy efficiency schemes. Sounds like a conscientious landlord.

If you want reassurance look up the original planning permission notice. It is not an unusual planning condition.

Bat surveys take place outside at night. Your HA is probably trying to tell you not to worry if you see people lurking in the bushes on the night of the survey.

In our council area all planning has to have a bat survey.

What else is planned for your property?

Thank you for your reply. My concern is that no one else in my street is receiving a visit from the housing. They did the same with the fire alarms. Out of interest I actually went round and casually asked my neighbours on my street if they received an email to that effect. Both times no fire alarms fitted with anyone else, and no bat surveys scheduled with anyone else. Now, I don’t like being paranoid but this is subtle harassment. Sure, it may be great that they are thinking of improving energy efficiency, but why target just one house in the middle of the street? Besides, I don’t have to agree to allowing anyone to conduct surveys inside my house, literally (except for repairs). Surveys using flying drones around the neighbourhood is fine, but receiving 2 emails with different information seems rather dubious. One email suggests ‘don’t worry no one should ask to enter your home during these surveys’ and the other email wants access to my home. Which is why I am questioning this. Really annoying.

If bat surveys usually take place at night, why does the email suggest they will require access into my home during the day? I mean, seriously?

Is this part of the social housing decarbonisation works? A survey may be necessary, depending on the measures planned.

If so, I would contact the resident liaison officer to query it.

Interesting! I lived in London for years and never had a bat survey. Then I moved to the countryside and 4 yrs down the line, I’ve never had to deal with a bat survey till now. Reassure me I’m imagining my paranoia but explain how or why only 1 house in the middle of the street is targeted. Am I missing something? C’mon guys!

You are being paranoid.

You don't know there aren't any bats until they've done a survey. That's the point of the survey.

Are you due to have cladding, soffits or fascias replaced?

You are being 'targeted' by safety and improvement works?!? In the kindest possible way - don't be ridiculous, you should be happy. It sounds like your house is being made better and safer for you to live in. Lucky you.

A bat survey is not a big deal at all. There are loads of bats living near me and I barely ever see them (when I do it's just a dark shape flitting past for less than a second). If I didn't know what they were I would assume they were insects or birds.

As pp said - the planning permission will be freely accessible. Maybe looking it up would set your mind at rest.

Have you called your HA to ask them about it all? I'm sure they'd be more than happy to explain what is being done and what the survey will entail.

Well that’s the kind of harrassment most folks would be happy to have.

I don’t know why your house is being offered energy efficiency measures - what planning permission are they referring to? Is it a new build or conversion?

However, the bat survey element is a completely normal requirement for any works that will disturb your roof space or tiles (bat surveyor 😊). Depending on the time of year and the type of works this might be an internal inspection (a bat roost potential survey) or one or more activity surveys (night time surveys outside your house).

This is very helpful! I am very grateful for all your answers! Not to mention the fact Londoners are an ungrateful bunch of people, but country ways can be extremely weird and most, (not all) Londoners can be suspicious. I wanna thank you all for taking the time to answer my post and reassure me. Thanks guys. Really appreciate it.