Wasps in your rental property?

5th July 2016 | By: Dave Smyth

wasp in rental property

Wasps are nasty beasties!

Wasp nests are a real problem when heading into the warmer months. A wasp sting can be very painful and in some cases life threatening, so the last thing that you want is a nest growing in or around your rental property.

Before you move in

It may already be too late for this but if you haven’t already moved in or will be moving into a new rental home in the future always inspect the property with the landlord or property manager.
Apart from the obvious signs of pests, such as wasp nests, you should also be looking out for any damage to the property that may allow wasps access into the house in the future.  Talk to the landlord about repairing any damage and make sure that you write these concerns on the Property Inspection Report.

Be vigilant

In the spring, the Queen wasp starts to build a nest and it will usually be about the size of a golf ball.  It will then grow rapidly as the number of wasps increase.  By summer, the nest could potentially be the size of a football and hold 3,000-6,000 wasps.  A larger nest could hold up to 10,000 wasps.

This explains why it is better to treat a nest earlier in the year when it is smaller and there are fewer wasps.  They are also less aggressive at this time.  So look around the property both inside and out and advise your Landlord if you feel that you have a problem that you cannot deal with yourself.

‘It is the Tenant’s responsibility to always let the landlord know as soon as you become aware of a possible problem.’

Who pays?

If the wasp nests were not present at the beginning of the tenancy and neither the landlord nor the tenant has done anything to cause it, responsibility for the eradication of the infestation is uncertain.  In these instances the Tenancy Services guidelines suggest that the cost should be equally split between the Tenant and the Landlord.

If however, the tenant thinks that the problem has been caused by the landlord not maintaining the property they can issue a notice to remedy asking for the work to be done.

So the best advice is to be vigilant.  Spot those nests before they become a huge issue and destroy the nests using Wasp-X, wasp and hornet spray.

Save

Save


Leave a Reply