The pair have spent hundreds of pounds trying to get rid of the pests, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

A couple blighted by bed bugs are calling on Haringey Council to take responsibility after spending more than £1,000 on treatments.

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

Having moved into their property in January the couple looked forward to developing their new home, but their joy was soon cut short.

“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.”

But this was just 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 detailed how, after tracking down the neighbouring property’s landlord, the couple were able to get access, and with the help of their bug specialist found “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.”

Following the discovery, the couple reached out to the council, sending photos and videos of the impacted property, but were “bounced between” departments and struggled to find the right person to speak to.

The couple said repeated attempts over the last 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”.

In response, a council spokesperson said: “We understand the distress and inconvenience this is causing and have been working hard to resolve the problems.

“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.

“There were no sightings during the visits, but the pest control technicians left the detection equipment for future monitoring.

“We took further action earlier this month with a course of treatment for bed bugs at [David] and his partner’s property and will do the same next door shortly.

“We will continue to work with the family to solve the issues and will keep them updated throughout.”

David concluded: “I think the most annoying thing from our perspective is, we’ve moved in relatively recently and we’ve had to hold off on developing the house, getting nice furniture, and we’ve been living with our belongings in bin bags since January.

“Books we’re not actively reading, clothes we don’t wear on a weekly basis, they’re all sitting in bin bags in random rooms which is quite crap.”

*Name changed as anonymity requested

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