Should my exterminator clean up the rat poops in my crawl space?

htabbas

I bought this house knowing it had rat infestation. (there is very limited inventory here, even after all the housing bad news, still have bidding wars, I am glad that I won this house out of the 8 bids after just 2 days of listing.)

I hired a exterminator to take care of the rats. Before I hired him, I verbally communicated with him and he said he would remove all the rat droppings. It's a 1400-sq-ft ranch house and I paid him $900 for the job. All he did was to seal all the entry point of the house and set like 10 traps. His traps didn't get any rats but two of my electrical traps got one. So then he got all his traps and gone. I called him to remove the rat poops and he said he was not supposed to do that. He could guarantee me no rats for 1 year but he does not remove rat poops. I look into the contract and it did not mention the removal poops part.

So what can I do? Removal of the rat poops was a major motivation for me to spend $900 on a professional. Or else, I have read enough literature about rats to do the sealing and trapping. (actually, this guy only put the trap around the entry point to the crawl space and the attic, he didn't even go in there to find the rat path to set traps and hence the reason why he didn't got any rat while I got two rats).

So what should I do? Now it's his words against mine. There is no paper trail saying that he will do the poop removal.

Tom Struble

clean up the poop

Bud Cline

Next time actually read the agreement before agreeing to it.

Evstarr

I have to agree. The verbal means little. It should have been added to the contract. Sorry.

htabbas

Yup! I guess I just have to suck it up... But I am definitely not happy with this guy.

PAbugman

You did nothing wrong-you simply trusted someone enough to hire them. If you were clear on what you wanted and he agreed then shame on him. Don’t feel bad as you are obviously different and better than he is. Next time ask about the eqpt that they use to clean up the droppings, such as HEPA filters, their own protective gear, and how they dispose of the droppings. This will get them talking which will establish their and your intent as well as what is in writing.

noquacks

Not true that verbal means nothing. A verbal aggrement is a legal contract. BUT, if he heralds the written, then it reduces the credibility of the verbal, perhaps. The guy is a scum bag, none the less. gave you a promise and weaseled out with the fine print.

Geez- rat poop.............idea rent a duster from a pest control store (maybe home depot?), and dust the crawl space, attic, wherever poops there, with sodium bicarbonate dust/fine powder (Arm/Hammer baking Soda).

__________________
Alexander Pope: [a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing]

Bud Cline

If you must rent a vacuum for this see if the exterminator has a vacuum you can rent from him.

Vac the poop and return the machine to him with the poop in it, then pay the charges sometime in 2017.

noquacks

But you better wear a NIOSH rated 0.2 micron filter mask, or youll be breathing in potentially deadly bacteria!

__________________
Alexander Pope: [a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing]

fireguy

Hanta Virus. I do not think I would want to suck up rat ****.