Terrible experience in property with rats & fleas

[user1473334501]

Dear all,

we wanted to share our experience of moving into a home infested with fleas and rats, and warn young families of certain agents and landlords marketing properties which are not fit to be rented out. My wife and I have a 18-month old boy, and are expecting a girl in a couple of months.

Here is the story: My family and I moved into a 3-bed rental in Wilton Road, Hitchin. On day 1 we saw a rat running past our toddler in the garden, pest control found a dead rat in the garden, and after a couple of days we realised the house was infested with fleas (the landlady had a cat). Of course we were not aware of the infestation when moving in. My pregnant wife and I were covered in flea bites, I was so badly bitten I had to take antibiotics. Subsequently we moved out, however, given the fleas infestation we had to leave our belongings and furniture in the house.
We moved out in a hurry into a hotel, but due to the high hotel costs we had to move out after a couple of days. We then moved into a temporary 1-bed while looking for a new permanent home.

Big lesson learnt, if you move into a new home (as ridiculous as it may sound) make sure you ask whether there has been rats or fleas in the past. The house was clearly not fit to be rented out, it was a living nightmare which significantly impacted our health and left us with a significant amount of costs.

Happy to provide more details, feel free to pm me.

Dreadful. Did you report landlady to environmental health? Has your deposit been returned? What about costs to get your possessions fumigated? ( this may need small claims )

Rats arent unknown in urban areas - rubbish, decking, garden overgrowth, leaving food out all encourage. Was the mess in the garden of the property or of neighbours?

I hope you get your costs back.

I moved into a shared house that crawled with fleas. My parents were the landlords. The fleas were there because the previous occupants had kept cats despite this being against the T&Cs. I helped to clean up after they'd moved out (huge job, they'd left it really grim) but we didn't clock the fleas until me and my friends moved in. I had over 400 bites, it was vile. None of my housemates had any reaction whatsoever though, not a single bite - it seems flea bites don't affect everyone. Once we saw my bites and were looking, then we started spotting the actual fleas jumping up.

I don't blame my parents, I blame the previous tenants.