Couple say home blighted by council-house bed bugs

A couple who say their home is blighted by bed bugs are calling on a north London council to take responsibility after spending more than £1,000 on treatments.

The Tottenham couple live next door to a private property leased to Haringey Council and used as social housing.

David, who did not share his surname, said soon after moving into their terraced property in January they discovered a "huge infestation" of bed bugs next door was infecting their property.

The council said it had treated the couple's property and was undertaking a "comprehensive monitoring programme" at the house it managed.

“We were losing our mind,” said David. “We found bed bugs in our bedroom and we were very surprised, we thought maybe we’d brought them back on our travels, we ended up getting a specialist to come in to treat it.”

This was the beginning of what would be repeated treatments, sometimes as often as every two weeks.

The couple say they went “stir crazy” wondering where the bugs were coming from as they kept returning, despite their specialist telling them “95% of the time” one treatment was “good enough”.

David said: “The only thing that came to mind was all the bugs were being found in rooms along a partition wall and the property next door had been vacated back in January as well.”

The couple’s property and the neighbouring one are terraced houses.

David was able to track down the landlord to gain access to the neighbouring house with a bed bug specialist, where they discovered “a massive infestation” with bugs believed to have been living there “two years plus”.

The specialist apparently had only seen a situation where bugs had “made it through the partition wall” just once in 20 years.

David said: “The poor people who were living there didn’t report it to the council I don’t think, and just lived with it.

"As they vacated, the bugs started to search for places to feed and came through the wall towards our property.”

The couple said they were "bounced around" by Haringey Council when they provided video and photo evidence of the impact on the property.

David said repeated attempts over the past few months to get the council to do work to resolve the issue and compensate them had been unsuccessful, and at one point they were told there was “no infestation in the property”.

A council spokesperson said they understood the "distress and inconvenience" caused.

“After they raised concerns about bed bugs in their property being in adjoining rooms, we undertook a comprehensive monitoring programme next door at the property we manage, in May," the spokesperson said.

They said there were "no sightings" during the visits but detection equipment was left for monitoring.

The council says it has also carried out a round of treatment on David's house and it will also be done next door.

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