A member made contact after suspecting there were bees nesting in the chimney of their rental property.
They had never encountered the issue before and they wanted to know who is responsible for dealing with the issue, they as the landlord or their tenant. They took to our forum to ask for some advice.
The responses on our forum
The first member to comment on the thread began by stating that in their view, an issue such as this would be the landlords’ responsibility to deal with. This is because if the bees are in the chimney, this would relate to the structure of the property.
Landlords are obliged to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property according to Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
This forum contributor also pointed out that it could be useful for the landlord to contact the local council about the issue for advice on what to do next.
Another landlord also joined in on the thread.
As well as being a landlord, they also happen to be a bee-keeper in their free time. They agreed with the first user, and suggested that it should be the landlord, rather than their tenant, who takes responsibility for dealing with the issue.
They recommended the landlord to contact a local beekeeper to take a look initially, because if the bees are reasonably easy to get to the bee-keeper may be able to help take them away for free.
Then, an adviser in our landlord advice team joined the thread.
They told the landlord that when it comes to household pests there is no clear-cut answer as to who is responsible. This is because liability depends on two things, the structure of the property and the lifestyle of the tenant.
If it’s the tenant’s lifestyle that has caused the issue, for example by not cleaning up properly, leaving food out, keeping rubbish in the house it would be their (the tenant's) responsibility.
If the issue had come about due to the structure of the property, for example if pests are coming in through parts of the building, the liability would fall on the landlord.
Our adviser recommended the landlord call a pest control specialist to help identify the problem and confirm whether the suspected nest in the chimney is a bees nest, and agreed with other forum users about contacting the council to ask for further advice on what steps to take next.
- To read the original forum post click here
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