Problem with neighbour!

starviewadams

Hi,

Our nextdoor neighbours house seems to be attracting rats into our and our other neighbours home.We alone have caught 20 of them over the past two weeks and we believe they are coming in through floorboards and pipes from them.The house that is connected to them on the other side are having similar problems too,despite having a cat and never having any previous rodent problems in the 20+ years they've lived there!

The neigbours in question are foreign nationals (from our guestimate there's at least 15 people living the house) and appear to take very good care of the house (ie no litter in front or back gardens,bins collected regularly,always cleaning their rugs etc.)They always have every window in their house open though, which is probably attracting the rats into their house,and also there is a slightly fould smell coming from their house too. Earlier this evening when I was out cutting our grass I spotted a large rat running along the windowsill inside their sitting room!

Just wondering what should/can we do?the house is rented privately and we dont know who the landlord is.Would the council be able to help in any way?either by contacting the landlord or with pest control?

Thanks!

DublinDilbert

God that sounds terrible. If you've caught 20, there's a major infestation. There should be no pipes running between your houses. Any gaps need to be bricked up (should be done in case of fire etc anyway)

You need to contact the environmental health officers in your local council and get someone out ASAP.

murphaph

Deffo get on to the Environmental Health Officer for you area immediately. They will act.

P_1

Have you spoken to the neighbours about it? I would hope that they are as concerned about it as you are.

I see you mentioned that they are foreign nationals, maybe they don't know where to go about it.

starviewadams

So many different people come and go from the house that I'm not sure who actually lives there anymore!Will have a word with the other neighbours tomorrow and see what they think we should do.Will also give the council a ring.

I had a look out the back garden there a few minutes ago and all their windows and doors are open and a gang of cats were coming and going from the place.

P_1

starviewadams wrote: »

So many different people come and go from the house that I'm not sure who actually lives there anymore!Will have a word with the other neighbours tomorrow and see what they think we should do.Will also give the council a ring.

I had a look out the back garden there a few minutes ago and all their windows and doors are open and a gang of cats were coming and going from the place.

Jesus, sounds like a nightmare, being somewhat delicate here, where are these neighbours from? (i.e. European, Asian etc).

The immediate thing that comes to mind is the possibility of them having some kind of dead animal in the house somewhere (that would explain the foul smell and the rats). You also mentioned rugs, they could have some kind of halal butchers going on? That could also explain the comings and goings. Hopefully thats the explanation and not anything more sinister.

Scrappychimow

How could them having windows open attract rats to their house, its not a feckin bakery their house, is it.

Scrappychimow

starviewadams wrote: »

So many different people come and go from the house that I'm not sure who actually lives there anymore!Will have a word with the other neighbours tomorrow and see what they think we should do.Will also give the council a ring.

I had a look out the back garden there a few minutes ago and all their windows and doors are open and a gang of cats were coming and going from the place.

DJ Kat must live there ?

Victor

pithater1 wrote: »

You also mentioned rugs, they could have some kind of halal butchers going on?

Just how do you come to that conclusion?

Scrappychimow wrote: »

DJ Kat must live there ?

On-topic please.

haulagebasher

Thats absolutely shocking state of afairs. The poster who mentioned tha possibility of a halal/kosher butchers operating from the house could be on to something. Think about it: - smell from offal and meat putrifying due to lack of refridgeration, - rats attracted to smell of said meats - cats coming to feed on offal and rats - people coming and going are the customers buying the meat. In particular the OP saying that it's different people all the time would tie in good with this idea.OP will need to clarify.
Perhaps, and i know it may be pushing the boundaries of acceptability, the OP should take a look into their bins if the are accesible at the side or front of the house. This is often a dead give away to suspicious activity in a house.OTOH, being from a poor country they just may not be aware that a higher standard of hygene is called for in the british isles. Op could inform them in a sensitive manner.

P_1

Victor wrote: »

Just how do you come to that conclusion?

The OP mentioned rugs, that could lead you to think that the neighbours could be Muslim (possibly jumping to conclusions here, but Muslim's do clean their prayer mats regularly, perhaps these rugs that the Op mentioned could be prayer mats).

Halal butchers wouldn't tend to refrigerate the meat (certainly I can't see a house having the capacity to do so anyway).

Rotten meat would certainly attract rats in such a volume as the OP suggests (and would certainly account for the smell).

I could well be adding 2 and 2 and getting 5 here but it could be a possibility. Perhaps this thread isn't the place for such speculation though I concede.

JustAThought

That's a bit of a nightmare :0

I worked in a place that was near where there were building works going in and a canal: you should have see the mouse infestation we had ; literally HOPPiNG with them; I couldn't believe it. On investigation ( rentokill & others) we discovered that both building works & the seasons can have a big effect as eg if hay us being cut & disturbing nests they can scarper & look for somewhere else nice & warm to move to ; like your house/office! Maybe something local is having a big effect that is impacting on everyone ; canal flooded, natural habitat or nest flooded or being built in/ roadworks etc.

Maybe your neighbours are horrified by it too ; hence all the cats.. It's an easy solution particularly if your from abroad & don't know about environmental inspectors/ council emergency call out teams etc.

Thou from some other poster I was wondering if this was in Ireland ; no-one is allowed to open or operate a private halal or otherwise slaughterhouse or butcheries without planning permission & stringent h&s " laws" & I doubt sincerely that that's happened without planning permission being granted next door!!! Of course Ireland is not in the " British Isles" so maybe it's different there.

Assuming the houses are 3 or 4 bed I would also be getting Onto the council with respect to fire risk ; if 15 people are living there this again will be in breach of norms for renting a house this size ( for h&s and fire risk reasons) ; maybe your local fire station guys could advise you in how to address this; they shut down Priory Hall in Fublin & had everyone move out because of serious breaches to building & fire regulation & because of fire risk ; so they have " powers" as well as being super-men : ) ( and ladies!!)

One final but a bit grisly point!!! There is the slight consideration that they could be breeding & eating the rats ; I spent a bit if time in Vietnam & it was quite normal in markets there to see tasty baskets of ready-skinned rats laid out to buy in the markets.... Thou if they have a lode of cats now that's less likely. Unless....

Keep us posted :0

athtrasna

starviewadams wrote: »

The neigbours in question are foreign nationals (from our guestimate there's at least 15 people living the house) and appear to take very good care of the house (ie no litter in front or back gardens,bins collected regularly,always cleaning their rugs etc.)

JustAThought wrote: »

Assuming the houses are 3 or 4 bed I would also be getting Onto the council with respect to fire risk ; if 15 people are living there this again will be in breach of norms for renting a house this size ( for h&s and fire risk reasons)

The PRTB would be very interested in hearing about this. Each rented house has a registered number of bed spaces, often twice the number of bedrooms + 1. So unless this is a 7 bedroom house, it would be over-occupied. You can see how many bedspaces a house is registered for, on the register on the website. If the property isn't registered then the enforcement team in the PRTB would also be interested.

Victor

OK folks, no more inventing stuff. If your ideas don't coincide with the limited information from starviewadams, don't go there.

rsole1

I remember watching a programme on tv about a certain Hindu sect that worships rats. They let them wander around freely and they even feed the rats.

Though a more likely possibility is a broken sewer pipe somewhere in the vicinity of the house.

edellc

Sounds to me like you have Roma gypsies living next to you - the rug washing, we have a family across the road, rugs always hung out over the wall and too many to count living there but they are friendly and nice and keep themselves to themselves, so in general they are nice to live beside

however in your case and the rats/cat situation you really need to report it to the environmental health officer, as regardless of what they are doing or not doing with the rats it is a health risk to you and your family so it needs to be sorted asap, its a simple 5min call and they come out and do an inspection and set the wheels in motion to get the issued solved...they will use poison so if you have animals then keep them inside and unfortunately their cats may come off the worse for this if their is rats inside and out Im not sure how they can keep the cats in and the rats out

but ring them asap and get the issued resolved

pm1977x

Sounds like your OTHER neighbour is the Pied Piper of Hamlin, and he's driving all the rats into your neighbour's house :rolleyes:

Seriously, some of the theories in here are amazing - how about just calling in and asking are they aware of the rat issue?

starviewadams

Yeah they are Roma gypsies,they've been living here nearly two years and we've never had a problem with them at all,very happy,smiley friendly people.

Apparently the older members of the family have gone on holidays to Romania for the summer and have left the younger members of the family (late teens/20's) here according to another one of my neighbours,maybe they're not as big on hygeine as their parents are!

Council said they would send out somebody to have a look around tomorrow anyways so will see what happens then.

P_1

starviewadams wrote: »

Yeah they are Roma gypsies,they've been living here nearly two years and we've never had a problem with them at all,very happy,smiley friendly people.

Apparently the older members of the family have gone on holidays to Romania for the summer and have left the younger members of the family (late teens/20's) here according to another one of my neighbours,maybe they're not as big on hygeine as their parents are!

Council said they would send out somebody to have a look around tomorrow anyways so will see what happens then.

Well there go my theories thankfully. Good to hear you got it sorted with the council. Hopefully all should be sorted within the week for you.

Out of interest did you end up having a chat with the younger neighbours? I can't imagine the situation being too pleasant at all for them.

Victor

rsole1 wrote: »

I remember watching a programme on tv about a certain Hindu sect that worships rats. They let them wander around freely and they even feed the rats.

Though a more likely possibility is a broken sewer pipe somewhere in the vicinity of the house.

Stick to the facts.

haulagebasher

Very interested to see what happened here OP. I am very relived to hear that it is not a halal-kosher butchery at least. Did you tell the council of the ethnicity of the residents? I would not mention it if I were you because they maybe fearful of raiding the house just in case anyone got wind of it and made allegations agaist council officials or staff. It would be best to just let them turn up and do it.If the council fail to addres the problem, you could buy a punnet of Storm and throw a few lumps of it over the back wall every night before bed. Rats eat it over night and the neighbours will not notice as it will be gone in the morning. Also you could try getting one of them ultrasonic repellers too.
It is also a good idea to go into the attic and check that the party wall is fully up to the roof and hasn't any gaps or been tunnelled through as that is where rats will get into your attic and water tank. Definitely check the wter tank for droppings and/or carcasees as rats near water can result in the dreaded Weils Disease or Leptospirosis which is very serious and often fatal if not treated in the earliest stage. A compromised party wall and could also be the source of the smells wafting into the house and it is a security and fire hazard. The other year I was told of a story by a fella who knew someone that.......(PM me for rest as I'm not sure about posing it here)

rsole1

haulagebasher wrote: »

Very interested to see what happened here OP. I am very relived to hear that it is not a halal-kosher butchery at least. Did you tell the council of the ethnicity of the residents? I would not mention it if I were you because they maybe fearful of raiding the house just in case anyone got wind of it and made allegations agaist council officials or staff. It would be best to just let them turn up and do it.If the council fail to addres the problem, you could buy a punnet of Storm and throw a few lumps of it over the back wall every night before bed. Rats eat it over night and the neighbours will not notice as it will be gone in the morning. Also you could try getting one of them ultrasonic repellers too.
It is also a good idea to go into the attic and check that the party wall is fully up to the roof and hasn't any gaps or been tunnelled through as that is where rats will get into your attic and water tank. Definitely check the wter tank for droppings and/or carcasees as rats near water can result in the dreaded Weils Disease or Leptospirosis which is very serious and often fatal if not treated in the earliest stage. A compromised party wall and could also be the source of the smells wafting into the house and it is a security and fire hazard. The other year I was told of a story by a fella who knew someone that.......(PM me for rest as I'm not sure about posing it here)

Weils Disease and leptospirosis are one and the same. It's actually rat urine that causes the problem - not rat ****e.

zef

"you could buy a punnet of Storm and throw a few lumps of it over the back wall every night before bed. Rats eat it over night and the neighbours will not notice as it will be gone in the morning."
I wouldn't agree that fecking rat poison over the hedge is a good idea, with cats, and possibly kids around. Is it legal even to feck rat poison over a fence???

[Jackass]

I used to live next to a deli / food place and we would get rats in the garden. Absolute nightmare. Eventually caught one in OUR kitchen!! :mad: Ended up cutting back all of the garden (as it was a bit over grown / made a nice area for them) and sprinkled poison everywhere where they could come in and also all around the garden.

There was no activity for a few months, then I saw two more outside in our garden but never again in the house before we moved.

It's an absolute nightmare though. Very difficult to get rid of, but if we saw more than 2 or 3, I'd be on to the council straight away...Interested to hear the outcome.

Victor

haulagebasher wrote: »

you could buy a punnet of Storm and throw a few lumps of it over the back wall every night before bed.

Advocating illegal behaviour is not acceptable.

bigneacy

JustAThought wrote: »

Ireland is not in the " British Isles" so maybe it's different there.

Sorry, completely OT but I couldn't pass it;

Since when are we not in the British Isles?

TheChizler

bigneacy wrote: »

JustAThought wrote: »

Ireland is not in the " British Isles" so maybe it's different there.

Sorry, completely OT but I couldn't pass it;

Since when are we not in the British Isles?

Nooooooo!!!

rsole1

TheChizler wrote: »

Nooooooo!!!

Yes you are.

Victor

bigneacy wrote: »

Sorry, completely OT but I couldn't pass it;

Since when are we not in the British Isles?

Let's not go there. So take it to PM.

the_syco

starviewadams wrote: »

Apparently the older members of the family have gone on holidays to Romania for the summer and have left the younger members of the family (late teens/20's) here according to another one of my neighbours,maybe they're not as big on hygeine as their parents are!

I'm thinking the bins no longer get "magically" emptied (by the parents), and some of the food, etc, has been left in the bins. This, accompanied by the windows been open, and the possibility of no-one being at home has probably encouraged the rats to come in.

Not sure how to approach them (depending on age, they may not listen to you), so probably best to get your local county council take care of it.

Funnyonion79

Hi, there was a family of Roma gypsies renting a house on my parent's road and like you said OP - there seemed to be at least 15 people living there (adults and children).

There was a bit of hassle with them - the police raided them one morning - and the landlord ended up evicting them. However when he went into the house, they had left loads and loads of dirty nappies all over the house, in cuboards, under beds etc. Could the same thing be happening in your neighbour's house and this might account for the rats and the foul smell??