Bed bugs
Tenancy Changeovers and Bed Bugs in Hendon
Bed bugs are carried in, never bred from dirt, and a let house has more ways in than most homes. A new tenant brings their own bedding and bags, someone buys a desk chair from a listings app, a friend stays for a week in September. Where a room is let furnished, the bed stays but the sleeper changes, and a room that was quiet for a year can have bed bugs within weeks of the new tenancy starting. How bed bugs get into a home covers the routes.
Second-hand mattresses
Cheap mattresses and bed frames are part of shared-house life. Before one comes in, look along every seam, the piping and the corners, and check the joints and screw holes of a frame for dark spotting, pale shed skins or live insects. Be as careful with a mattress left behind in the house by the last tenant as with one bought online: you do not know where it has been. A mattress that is fine can often be kept, and whether you can keep your mattress explains when.
Found in the front garden
At the end of a tenancy it is common to see beds and sofas left out on the path for collection. Leave them there. Taking in a piece of furniture someone else has thrown out is one of the easiest ways to bring bed bugs home.
One Room or the Whole House?
This is the question that matters most in a shared house, and it decides the price. Bed bugs stay close to where someone sleeps, so a single affected bedroom is common, especially early on. They can move to the next room along skirting boards, through gaps around pipes and on clothes and bags, so a neighbour in the next room may be affected without knowing, because not everyone reacts to bites. How bed bugs spread between neighbouring homes explains the same movement across walls.
- Each tenant should check their own bed seams, frame and headboard before the booking
- Tell us which rooms have signs and which have been checked and are clear
- Rooms with signs are counted; hallways, landings and stairs are not
- Do not sleep in another tenant's room or on the lounge sofa, as that spreads them
Before the Visit
Tell us whether the property is a whole house, a single room or a flat, how many bedrooms have signs, and who can give access to each. Do not throw out furniture or spray shop-bought products first, since both can scatter bed bugs into other rooms. Preparing a room for treatment sets out what to do with clothes, bedding and the floor. You will be told what was found and what happens next, and how long it takes depends on how far they have spread. If bites or spotting carry on after that, get back in touch, and why you might still see bed bugs explains what to look for.
Stopping It at the Next Changeover
Landlords can make the next changeover safer by checking each bed and upholstered chair while rooms are empty, replacing damaged mattress covers, and telling incoming tenants to inspect second-hand furniture before it comes in. Tenants returning from travel can unpack onto a hard floor and wash clothes on a hot wash straight away. Bites that turn up in lines on bare legs, with pets in the house, could be fleas instead, and dark specks with no bites along a skirting may point to carpet beetles. For bed bugs in Colindale's blocks and elsewhere in the borough, see Bed Bug Control Barnet.
