Selling a house with rodents

For all the cute cartoons, from Tom and Jerry to Ratatouille, having mice or rats in your home is anything but cute. Rodents pose a health risk with their urine and droppings and they can cause serious damage to the fabric of your home. As you would expect, this can make selling a house with mice or rats a real problem.

Unless you’re prepared to spend hundreds of pounds on professional exterminators before you even go to market, a rodent infestation will inevitably reduce the value of your home. Worse still, being labelled a ‘problem property’ will significantly reduce the number of interested buyers, so chances are you’ll get even less when you sell.

In this article, we’ll outline your options when selling a house with rats or mice, including fixing the problem yourself, hiring professional exterminators and selling your house with rodents and letting your buyers solve the issue. We’ll also look at why selling a house with rodents to a cash buyer can be a quick and easy option.

What is a rodent infestation?

Having the occasional mouse or rat investigate your home is not usually considered a problem. One swallow doesn’t make a summer, and one curious mouse doesn’t make your house unsellable. Unfortunately, these furry visitors are often just the scouting party, and they will return with their friends if they like what they see. They will then make themselves at home very quickly and start breeding exponentially and before you know it, your home will be overrun by pests. It’s then considered an infestation, and in the worst cases, your property can be deemed unfit for human habitation.

The problem with rodent infestations

Apart from the obvious ‘ick factor’ of having vermin running around your home, rats and mice are also a serious health hazard. An infestation will create huge amounts of droppings that you can see, and urine that you can’t. Germs from these will be run, invisibly, all over your home as the creatures move around, including on kitchen worksurfaces where you prepare food, on children’s toys that they handle and put in their mouths, and even on your bedding. ‘Ick’ indeed!

As if that’s not unpleasant enough, rats and mice can cause serious, and even dangerous, damage to your home. Forget Jerry’s quaint arched doorway to his skirting board home, in reality, rodents will gnaw through whatever is in their way, including wood and plasterboard. This can weaken the structure of walls and let in drafts and rainwater causing further damage. Rodents can even eat through electrical wiring, disrupting your supplies and causing a potential fire hazard.

Can you sell a house with rodents?

There’s nothing stopping you from selling a house with a rodent infestation, but you are obliged to inform your buyers of the problem. You’ll normally be asked about this kind of issue by the buyers solicitor as part of the conveyancing process. If you fail to disclose a problem with rats or mice, and your buyers subsequently discover it, then they can sue you for withholding this information.

Even if you’re not asked outright, it’s simply not worth pretending that the problem isn’t there. Any surveyor worth their salt will soon spot the tell-tale signs, such as droppings and teeth marks, and report their concern. Trying to dupe your buyers in this way never ends well. It can break their trust and even break your sale.

What are the options available when selling a house with a rodent infestation?

If you want to sell a house with a rat or mouse infestation, then you have a number of options:

1) Try to fix the pest problem yourself

Tackling a rat or mouse infestation is not an easy task, and you may struggle to completely remove the issue. A colony can run into dozens, sometimes hundreds of animals, so a couple of traps simply won’t cut it. You may save a little on costs by buying the equipment yourself, but you’ll also have to handle the traps and the poison, and you’ll need to remove and dispose of the dead rodents yourself (‘ick’ again). It’s certainly not a job for the inexperienced or for the squeamish.

2) Pay a professional to fix the problem

A professional exterminator will provide a thorough service that will eradicate rodents completely from your property and include steps to prevent them coming back. They will do all the dirty work and the best operators will provide a certificate of treatment and may even give you a guarantee. These will help to put potential buyers’ mind at rest.

options available when selling your house with a rodent infestation

Does your house need a full refurbishment?

If your property is in a state of disrepair you are probably asking yourself how much more would it be worth if I renovate it and is it worth all of the time, effort and expense?

Read our comprehensive guide to see if refurbishing your house is the best option for you;

Guide: Should you renovate your house before selling it?

3) Pass the rat problem on to your buyer

If you simply don’t want to face your rodent issue yourself, you can try to sell your home as is, rats and all. The problem with this approach is that most buyers want a home that they can just move in to, with no pressing problems to solve. Even if you offer a price reduction to compensate for the problem, the hassle, and the stigma (there’s that ‘ick’ again), of buying a house with rodents will be too much for many buyers.

Selling your house as-is to a cash buyer

Cash house buyers will buy any house, in any condition, and so are a great option for selling a house with rodents. You will get a little less for your home, but you won’t have any of the hassle of fixing the problem, or the humiliation of selling a rat-infested home.

You can get a no obligation offer from an approved house buying company based on your circumstances and location, it only takes a short 10 – 15 minute phone call to get an idea of the sort of offer you could expect. If it doesn’t work for you no harm done, if it does you have just found a buyer.

Step 1: Click “find a buyer” below to get matched with a vetted and approved house buyer based on your location and circumstances.

Step 2: Wait for the company to give you a call, this will usually be within 10 minutes, they will ask you some questions about the property you are looking to sell and give you an idea of what an offer from them would look like.

Step 3: If the offer is an amount that works for you they will carry out a full valuation and formalise their offer, usually within 24 hours.

Step 4: Once you accept the formalised offer you set a completion date (which can be as soon as a few weeks if you need) and the conveyancing process begins.

Step 5: The sale completes on your chosen date and you can move on with your life.

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What does it cost to fix a rodent infestation?

Solving your mouse or rat problem involves more than just getting a cat. You need to buy traps and other equipment yourself or employ the services of a professional. Mouse and rat extermination prices are not cripplingly high, but it’s not easy work and can be very disruptive for you and your family.

According to Checkatrade, each visit from a professional exterminator will cost between £120 and £240. Many infestations will require multiple visits to completely eradicate the rodents, and so the costs can quickly add up. If you’re already on a tight budget, or struggling to pay your mortgage, paying out to fix a rodent problem before you go to market may not be an option.

It’s also worth remembering that, because of the nature of rat and mouse infestations, they may need to get behind kitchen units, under floorboards and into your loft space. This can cause significant disruption and even damage to your home, just when you need it to look its best for viewers. Check out the movie Mousehunt and you’ll see how badly this can go!

Can I get a mortgage on a house with rodents?

A rodent infestation is unlikely to pull the plug when it comes to being able to secure a mortgage unlike something like subsidence or Japanese knotweed, but they’ll still be cautious about lending. If you’re buying a house with a rodent problem, you may find that the mortgage comes with a caveat insisting that the problem is dealt with within a set period.

Some of the funds may even be held back until you can prove that the eradication work has been done professionally and the problem is fully solved. If you’re selling a house with rodents, your buyers may demand that the cost of eradication is taken off the price of your home in order to compensate for such mortgage conditions.

can i get a mortgage on a house with rodents

What if your neighbour has a rodent infestation?

To put it bluntly, if your neighbours have a rodent problem, then you do to. It’s highly unlikely that rats or mice will colonise one property, and simply ignore the property next door. Rats and mice breed rapidly and will quickly run out of food and space. That means that if they haven’t spread to your home yet, you can be pretty sure that your tiny neighbours will be popping round soon, and it won’t be to borrow a cup of sugar! You may be able to sell your house quickly before this happens, but in the time that it takes to get on the market, the invasion could have already begun.

It can be frustrating to pay out to fix a rodent infestation, only to find that the problem quickly returns because your neighbours have not done the same. If you’re selling your home and they’re not, then the problem, and the expense that comes with it, will not be as urgent for them as it is for you. The only way around this is to negotiate. By becoming allies in the war, you’ll be able to solve the problem once and for all, and even share the cost.

Leave your sinking ship

If your rats won’t leave your sinking ship of a house, then there is a lifeboat that you can use to escape. A cash buyer will take your property, and all its problems, off your hands, so you can walk away and start again – preferably in a new home that only has you and your family living in it.

To find the best cash house buyers, check out the Guru’s independent reviews. You’ll also find articles covering how cash house buyers work and what how much a cash buyer will pay for your home.

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