Pest Control in Watling Estate Houses
The estate was laid out as cottage housing rather than flats: modest two-storey houses with front and back gardens, grouped in pairs and short rows. The gardens have had a hundred years to mature, and the houses have been extended, re-roofed and re-windowed to very different degrees, so two neighbours in the same row can have quite different weak points.
Solid walls and what they mean for pests
Houses of this age were built with solid brick walls, not the cavity walls that became standard later. There is no hollow between an inner and outer skin for a mouse to run along, so a rodent that gets in is almost always using a particular gap: a worn air brick where the ground floor is timber, a hole cut for a newer boiler flue or waste pipe, soft pointing at the foot of a wall, or the joint where a rear extension meets the original brickwork. That is good news, because a particular gap can be found and closed. In a terrace the roof spaces and underfloor areas can still connect one house with the next, so a problem next door is worth hearing about.
Back gardens and the rear footpaths
The footpaths behind the gardens are one of the estate's defining features, and they matter for pests. A narrow path with fences on both sides, bins kept by the back gates, overgrown corners and anything dumped there gives rats cover and food along a whole row. Foxes use the same routes at night. Houses near Watling Park or Silk Stream Park also have mature trees and open grass close by, which brings squirrels onto the roofs. A problem that starts on a shared path is rarely one household's alone, and it goes better when the neighbours along the row keep bin lids shut and report fly-tipping to Barnet Council.
Who Arranges Pest Control in a Burnt Oak House?
On a single Watling Estate road the answer can change from door to door, because the houses are now held in different ways. Work out which of these applies to you before booking.
If you own the house
You arrange and pay for treatment yourself, as with any privately owned home, and that is the same whether the house was bought from the council years ago or has changed hands several times since. Tell the neighbours if the pest is one that moves between joined houses.
If you rent from the council or a housing association
Report the problem to your landlord first, through its repairs or tenancy contact, before arranging anything yourself. What a social landlord deals with, and what it expects tenants to sort out, depends on the landlord, the tenancy and the pest, so ask rather than assume. If you then decide to book privately, keep a note of what you reported and when.
If you rent privately
Let your landlord or letting agent know in writing as soon as you find signs. Who pays normally comes down to the tenancy agreement and what caused the problem, so read the agreement before either side assumes. Tenant or landlord can book with us; we only need to know who to speak to and how to get in.
If you are the landlord
A landlord letting a house on the estate can book directly and pass us the tenant's name and number. Mention if the house is let room by room or has a lodger, because it changes how many rooms are involved and who needs to be at home for the visit.
Flats Over Burnt Oak Broadway
Burnt Oak Broadway runs along the A5, the old Watling Street, close to Burnt Oak station on the Northern line. The flats above its shops sit over businesses with their own kitchens, stock and bins, and they share stairs and service runs with them. The same principle applies there as on the estate: a tenant tells the landlord first, and a leaseholder checks with the freeholder or managing agent who deals with the stairs, the back yard and the shop below.
