How to avoid buying a pest- infested home

How To Spot A Pest Infection When House-Hunting

When buying a house, the current owners are unlikely to tell you if the property is in the grips of a pest infestation. Jeff Nelson, Director of a long standing professional pest management company is here to give you advice on how to avoid buying a pest ridden home.

EBS Pest Control are pest and bird control specialists who have been operating in London since 2002. Jeff Nelson, the founding Director of EBS has over 20 years of practical industry experience.

Why You Don't Want Pests In Your New House

Pests are repulsive, health hazardous, financial burdens and are not something that you want to find after moving into your dream home. After the stress of moving is finally over, you don't want to be dealing with critters like cockroaches or bed bugs. While you can call out a pest control service, the simplest way to avoid this issue is not to buy a home with an infestation in the first place.

How To Spot The Signs of an Infestation?

To do this, you need to know what you are looking for. It is sensible to do a bit of research before visiting a property. If you can, find out what the most common types of pest are in the area, then find out what their droppings look like, as this will be important when viewing the property.

Once you've done your homework, visit the property. Pay close attention once inside, one thing you'll want to look out for is gnawing marks on the woodwork, cabinets, furniture and walls, especially in the kitchen and bathroom areas. When you've done that, check the floors for any sign of the droppings you researched before visiting, although it is unlikely you will spot anything in open spaces, pay special attention to corners and cupboards. Look out for black greasy marks perhaps on holes around pipes and skirting boards. This is an indicator of mice running past and leaving grease from their fur behind. If you haven't spotted anything by this point, it is time to go deeper.

Expand your search to signs of pests inside cupboards, behind appliances and in and around furniture. Pests are more commonly found in dark and damp areas, so make sure that you get into all the hard to reach places. While looking in cupboards, keep an eye out for pest control poisons and other products, these are things you would only own if you have had a previous pest problem. You might even want to go as far as request to see behind fixed appliances such as dishwashers or dryers, these are excellent places for spotting droppings as the owners are not likely to have cleaned it before your visit.

You will also want to check the loft and garage space if there is any on the property; these are favourite places for pests as they are quiet, dark and have a lot of old junk to nibble through. Make sure you don't get stuck in here too, look behind boxes, bikes and other stored items, don't leave a single stone unturned. Stick your nose in while you search and see what it smells like. If you come across something that smells like dirt mixed with ammonia, it might be a sign that the area has recently been covered with pests.

To Sum Up

If you come across evidence of pests, you might want to consider not purchasing the property. At the very least, you should use the evidence as a bargaining tool, and insist that the house price be changed to reflect the cost of bringing in a pest control specialist. However, if you would rather just steer clear of this problem all together follow my advice, remain attentive while looking around the houses and you won't be stuck with the bill for, or the stress of getting rid of these horrible creatures.

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