A student has moved out of her house after she found an infestation of mites in her bedroom.
Speaking to Leeds Student, the Second Year Communications student said “When I first found them there were a large number crawling on my bedside table and on everything… as a result I only used my bedroom to sleep in, and it meant me spending a lot of nights in my friends bedroom.”
The student initially reported the mites to Oasis Properties, the company that manage the property, in November of last year. A contractor was sent to the house to deal with the issue. However, when the student moved back in after Christmas, the infestation had grown worse, forcing her to temporarily move home for over a week whilst the infestation was resolved.
She added, “The worst moment was after Christmas when I moved back in… no-one wants to be in a bed where there are bugs crawling over you, or a room where all your belongings have bugs crawling over them.” The landlord has so far not offered to refund the student’s rent during the time she spent at home in Preston.
Last month, Leeds City Council contacted Oasis Properties, and the infestation was resolved. The housing agency agreed to replace the damaged soft furnishings, including providing a new mattress.
A spokesperson for Unipol said, “It is difficult to deal with pest infestations, and that sometimes it can take a few attempts over a period of weeks to eradicate a problem.
However, often landlords don’t appreciate how inconvenient and disruptive this process can be to tenants, and that in these circumstances landlords need to be particularly considerate and act to mitigate any inconvenience or loss of amenity caused.
Oasis Properties told this paper: “When it became apparent the problem had not been resolved, we acted immediately, got the contractors back and got the problem resolve. We believe that had the issue not been misdiagnosed, the problem would have been solved immediately. We acted in good faith by sending out a pest control contractor and acted on their advice.
Words: Phil Mann and Max Bruges