The Growing Problem
David had been managing a Retail Park in Walton-on-Thames for three years, and he’d dealt with the usual array of maintenance challenges that come with overseeing a busy development of shops, cafés, and offices. But nothing had quite prepared him for the situation that developed over the summer months.
“It started with the bins,” David remembers. “The waste collection area at the back of the units – you’d occasionally spot a rat scurrying away when you approached. Not ideal, but not uncommon in a commercial setting with food outlets. I arranged for the pest controller to come out, assuming it was just a straightforward vermin issue related to waste management.”
The pest control company set traps and bait stations around the perimeter, and for a couple of weeks, things seemed to improve. But then the complaints started coming in from the tenants themselves.
First, it was the café on the ground floor. The owner, Emma, called David in a panic after discovering droppings in her stockroom. Then the beautician next door reported hearing scratching sounds coming from behind the skirting boards. Within a fortnight, three different businesses had reported similar issues.
“That’s when I knew we had a serious problem,” David says. “These weren’t just rats passing through the bin area – they were actually getting inside the units. I had Emma practically in tears, worried about what would happen if a customer saw a rat in her café. The reputational damage would have been devastating for her business and for the entire retail park.”
The Search for Answers
David brought the pest control company back, and they increased the number of traps and tried different approaches. But the rats kept returning. It was like fighting an invisible enemy – they could deal with the rats they caught, but more would always appear.
“The pest controller was as frustrated as I was,” David recalls. “He said to me, ‘I can keep catching rats all day long, but if you’ve got an entry point we haven’t found, they’ll just keep coming.’ That’s when he suggested the problem might be in the drains.”
David had never considered the drainage system as a potential issue. The retail park had been built in the early 2000s, and he’d never had any drainage problems. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense – the rats were appearing inside units, often near plumbing areas. They had to be coming from somewhere underground.
A quick Google search for drainage specialists in Walton-on-Thames led David to YourDrainExperts. After explaining the situation over the phone, we suggested a comprehensive CCTV drain survey to investigate whether the drainage system was providing access routes for the rodents.
“I’ll be honest, I was sceptical about whether it would show anything,” David admits. “I thought maybe we’d be throwing money away. But I was desperate, and we needed to rule it out if nothing else.”
The Investigation
Our team arrived at the retail park the following week with our CCTV equipment. David met us at the main access point and watched as we began feeding the camera into the drainage system that served the commercial units.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” David says. “I’ve never actually seen inside a drain before. But watching that monitor as the camera went through the pipes – it was eye-opening.”
Within the first twenty minutes, our cameras revealed the problem. The footage showed multiple breaches in the drainage pipes – some were cracks that had developed over time, others appeared to be damaged joint seals where pipe sections connected. The gaps weren’t huge, but they didn’t need to be. A rat can squeeze through a hole the size of a pound coin.
“When the engineer paused the footage and pointed out the crack, I could actually see daylight coming through from outside,” David remembers. “And then we saw something moving in the pipe. The engineer said, ‘There’s your problem – that’s rat activity right there.’ It was surreal seeing it on screen.”
The survey revealed something else that explained why the problem had become so persistent. Several sections of the drainage system showed significant accumulation of organic matter – food waste that had been washed down from the commercial kitchens over the years. For the rats, the drains weren’t just an access route; they were a reliable food source.
“The engineer explained it really clearly,” David says. “He said once rats find somewhere with easy access and plenty of food, they’ll establish it as part of their regular territory. They weren’t just passing through – they’d basically set up camp in our drainage system.”
The Solution
Our engineers recommended a two-pronged approach. First, repair all the damaged sections of pipe to eliminate the entry points. This could be done using no-dig relining technology, avoiding the need to excavate around the retail park’s car park and loading areas. Second, thoroughly clean the entire drainage system using high-pressure water jetting to remove all the accumulated waste that was attracting the rats.
David gave us the go-ahead immediately. “At that point, I just wanted it sorted. Emma from the café was considering breaking her lease if we couldn’t resolve it, and I didn’t blame her. No business can operate with a rat problem.”
Our team returned the following week to carry out the work. The relining process sealed all the cracks and damaged joints, essentially creating a new, seamless pipe inside the existing drainage system. The high-pressure jetting then flushed away years of accumulated debris, eliminating the food source that had made the drains so attractive to the rodents.
The entire job took four days to complete, and the work was carried out with minimal disruption to the businesses. Most tenants barely noticed we were there.
The Results
The change was immediate and dramatic. Within a week, none of the businesses reported any further signs of rat activity. The scratching sounds stopped. No more droppings appeared. The pest control traps remained empty.
“I remember Emma calling me about ten days after the work was finished,” David says, smiling at the memory. “She said, ‘David, I think it’s actually worked. I can’t believe it, but I think they’re really gone.’ The relief in her voice was palpable.”
Three months on, the retail park remains rat-free. David has since arranged an annual maintenance contract with YourDrainExperts for regular drain cleaning and inspection, viewing it as essential preventative maintenance.
“I learned an expensive lesson,” David reflects. “You can spend hundreds on pest control treating the symptoms, but if you don’t address the root cause – literally what’s underneath the ground – you’re just wasting time and money. The CCTV survey was the key to everything. It showed us exactly what the problem was and where it was happening.”
He pauses, then adds: “The thing that impressed me most about YourDrainExperts was how they explained everything. I’m not a drainage expert – I manage retail space. But they took the time to show me the footage, explain what I was looking at, and outline exactly why this was happening and how they’d fix it. They didn’t just patch the problem; they solved it properly.”
For Emma and the other tenants at Thames View Retail Park, the resolution has meant they can focus on running their businesses without the constant worry of rodent issues affecting their customers and reputation.
Key Takeaways
This Walton-on-Thames case study demonstrates several important lessons for commercial property managers:
- Persistent rodent problems in commercial properties often indicate underlying drainage issues rather than simple pest control problems
- CCTV drain surveys can identify access points that would otherwise remain hidden
- Accumulated organic waste in drainage systems attracts and sustains rodent populations
- No-dig repair technologies allow drainage problems to be resolved without major disruption to commercial operations
- Addressing the root cause (damaged drains) is more cost-effective than ongoing pest control treatments for symptoms
- Preventative maintenance through regular surveys and cleaning prevents recurrence
If you manage commercial property in Walton-on-Thames and are experiencing rodent issues that pest control alone hasn’t resolved, the problem may well be in your drains. A professional CCTV survey can provide the answers you need to solve the issue permanently.
FAQs: Solving Rat Problems at Retail Parks in Walton-on-Thames
We've got a café in our retail park and we're seeing rats near the bins. Is this normal or should I be worried?
Right, so seeing the occasional rat near commercial bins isn’t entirely unusual – anywhere you’ve got food waste, you’ll sometimes attract opportunistic rodents. But here’s the thing: if it’s becoming a regular occurrence, or if rats are being spotted during daylight hours, or if they’re not immediately running away when people approach, then you’ve got a problem that’s beyond “occasional visitor.”
David at Thames View Retail Park started exactly where you are. A few sightings near the waste collection area, nothing dramatic. He assumed it was just part and parcel of managing a property with food outlets. But within weeks, the rats were appearing inside the actual units – the café, the beauty salon, the recruitment offices.
The mistake David made (his words, not mine) was assuming the rats were just there because of the bins. What the CCTV survey revealed was that the bins were just the visible bit. Underground, the drainage system had multiple entry points, and the rats were using those to access the entire retail park. The bins might have attracted them initially, but the damaged drains were letting them set up camp inside the building itself.
If you’re seeing rats regularly, don’t wait for them to move indoors. By the time tenants are reporting droppings in stockrooms and scratching sounds in walls, you’re dealing with a full-blown infestation that’s affecting businesses and potentially driving customers away.
Get it checked now, while it’s still manageable. A CCTV survey will show you whether it’s just opportunistic rats attracted to waste, or whether you’ve got damaged drains creating access routes into your property. One of those is a minor nuisance; the other is a serious problem that will only get worse.
My café tenant is panicking about rats affecting their food hygiene rating. How serious is this?
Extremely serious, and Emma’s panic at Thames View was completely justified.
Food businesses live and die by their reputation and their hygiene ratings. If Environmental Health comes in and finds evidence of rodent activity – droppings, gnaw marks, anything – that café is looking at enforcement action, potential closure orders, and a destroyed reputation that’ll take years to rebuild.
Even if the rats haven’t actually contaminated food or preparation areas, just the presence of evidence is enough for Environmental Health to take action. And in today’s world of Google reviews and social media, one customer seeing a rat or posting about it online can destroy a café’s business literally overnight.
Emma was beside herself because she understood what was at stake. She’d built her business, established a loyal customer base, and one rat sighting could undo all of that in minutes. She was talking about breaking her lease if David couldn’t sort it out – and she wasn’t being dramatic, she was being realistic about business survival.
The thing is, in Emma’s case, she was doing everything right. Her kitchen was spotless, waste was properly managed, food was correctly stored. But none of that mattered when rats had access through damaged drains. She was being punished for a building infrastructure problem that wasn’t her fault.
This is why David needed to act fast. It wasn’t just about managing a pest problem – it was about protecting a viable business from being destroyed through no fault of their own. Every day he delayed, Emma was at risk of a customer spotting something or Environmental Health making an unannounced visit.
If you’ve got food businesses in your retail park and you’re aware of rodent activity, you need to treat this as an emergency. Not in a few weeks, not when you’ve got time – now. Because if Emma or any other food tenant gets shut down or enforcement action taken, you’re looking at potential legal action from the tenant for breach of lease, loss of rental income, and serious reputational damage to your retail park.
Get the CCTV survey done, identify the problem, fix it. Before it costs you tenants and money.
Won't fixing the drainage just push the rats to a neighbouring property instead?
Interesting question, and I can tell you’re thinking about this responsibly, which is good.
The short answer is: not really, no. Here’s why.
When David’s drains were repaired at Thames View, the rats didn’t relocate to the shop next door or the business park down the road. They just… left the area. Because the attraction wasn’t just “there’s a retail park here” – the attraction was specifically “there’s easy access to food and shelter through these damaged drains.”
Once those access points were sealed:
- The rats couldn’t get into the building anymore
- The accumulated food waste inside the pipes was cleared away (so no food source)
- The drainage system was no longer providing the warm, sheltered environment they’d been using
Without those specific attractions, rats move on to find better opportunities elsewhere. They’re opportunistic – they go where resources are easily available. Make your property inhospitable, and they’ll go somewhere that isn’t.
It’s different from just catching rats with pest control, which doesn’t change the underlying attraction. If you’re only catching them without fixing the access points, then yes, you’re just churning through a population that will be replaced by others. But when you actually eliminate the access and food source through drainage repairs, you’re removing the reason they’re there in the first place.
David’s neighbouring properties didn’t suddenly report rat problems after his drains were fixed. The rats just dispersed back to wherever rats normally hang out when they’re not infiltrating buildings – the sewer system, waterways, wherever.
Think of it this way: if you’ve got a leak in your roof that’s creating a puddle inside, you don’t worry that fixing the roof will just move the puddle to the next room. You fix the roof, the water stops coming in, problem solved. Same principle.
The responsible thing – which you’re clearly already thinking about – is to fix your drainage properly. That’s not pushing a problem onto others; that’s maintaining your property to the standard it should be maintained to.
Multiple businesses in our retail park are reporting rats. Should each tenant arrange their own pest control or should I deal with it centrally?
Definitely deal with it centrally as the property manager, and here’s why David learned this the hard way.
When you’ve got multiple tenants in one building reporting the same problem – which is exactly what happened at Thames View – that immediately tells you it’s not a tenant-specific issue. It’s a building infrastructure issue.
If Emma’s café had rats and nobody else did, maybe that’s a café-specific waste management problem. But when the café, the beauty salon, AND the recruitment offices are all experiencing it? That’s your drainage system providing building-wide access.
If you leave each tenant to sort it themselves:
It’s more expensive overall: Three tenants each paying for separate pest control contracts costs way more than one coordinated approach.
It doesn’t solve the underlying problem: They’ll all be treating symptoms (catching rats) while the cause (damaged drains) remains unfixed. So they’re throwing money at a problem that will never go away.
It creates tenant relationship nightmares: Tenants will rightfully argue that building infrastructure is your responsibility as landlord or property manager. If the café fixes their unit and the beautician doesn’t, rats will just move between them through the shared drainage system.
It looks unprofessional: Your tenants expect you to manage the building properly. Telling them “sort it out yourselves” when there’s clearly a building-wide infrastructure issue is not going to maintain good landlord-tenant relationships.
It might be your legal responsibility anyway: Most commercial leases make the landlord responsible for maintaining the building’s structure and external systems, which includes drainage.
What David did – and what you should do – is take charge. Get the CCTV survey done to identify the actual problem. Get the drainage repairs done to fix the root cause. Coordinate pest control to deal with any remaining rats while the repairs are being carried out.
Your tenants will respect you for taking responsibility and actually solving the problem properly. Emma went from being stressed and talking about breaking her lease to being grateful that David sorted it comprehensively. That’s the kind of property management that keeps good tenants and maintains occupancy rates.
Yes, it costs money upfront. But it’s cheaper than losing tenants, cheaper than ongoing pest control costs, and cheaper than the reputational damage to your retail park.
How can I prevent this happening again once the drains are fixed?
Great question, and this shows you’re thinking long-term rather than just putting out fires, which is exactly the right approach.
Once David’s drainage was repaired, he put several things in place to prevent recurrence:
Annual drainage maintenance contract: He arranged regular CCTV surveys with YourDrainExperts – not because there was a problem, but to catch any developing issues early. Think of it as a check-up rather than waiting for symptoms.
Regular high-pressure jetting: Every six months, the drains get jetted to clear any accumulating waste before it builds up. This is especially important with food outlets because fats and organic matter will inevitably wash down drains over time.
Waste management review: David worked with his café tenant to ensure grease traps were properly maintained and food waste was being disposed of correctly. Not because Emma was doing anything wrong, but because prevention is easier than cure.
Monitoring regime: David now keeps an eye out for early warning signs – any reports of slow drainage, unusual smells, or solitary rat sightings get investigated promptly rather than being left to develop.
Documentation: He keeps records of all drainage surveys and maintenance. This helps him track the system’s condition over time and also provides evidence for insurance purposes and due diligence if he ever sells the property.
The thing is, drainage systems in commercial properties with food outlets need active management. You can’t just fix them once and forget about them. Fats will build up, debris will accumulate, wear and tear will gradually occur. But if you’re staying on top of it with regular maintenance, you catch problems when they’re minor and cheap to fix, rather than waiting for emergencies.
David sees his maintenance contract as insurance. It costs a few hundred pounds a year, but it’s prevented any recurrence of the problem and gives him peace of mind. His tenants are happy, his retail park has a good reputation, and he’s not dealing with crisis management anymore.
Prevention really is cheaper than cure, especially when cure might involve losing tenants worth thousands in annual rent.
One of my tenants found droppings and wants to withhold rent until it's fixed. What are my rights?
Right, this is getting into tenant relationship territory, and while I’m not a solicitor, I can tell you what the practical situation usually looks like.
The legal answer depends on your lease terms, but practically speaking, if you’ve got a rodent infestation affecting multiple tenants and it’s due to drainage infrastructure issues, your tenant probably has grounds to take action. They might be within their rights to:
- Withhold rent if the premises are not fit for purpose
- Claim breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment
- Seek rent abatement for the period the problem exists
- Potentially break the lease if it’s affecting their business operations
But here’s the thing: by the time you’re getting into legal discussions about rent withholding and lease breaches, you’ve already lost. Even if you’re technically within your rights to demand full rent, you’re destroying the landlord-tenant relationship and likely losing that tenant when their lease is up anyway.
Emma at Thames View was talking about breaking her lease. She wasn’t making idle threats – she was genuinely looking at alternative premises because the rat problem was putting her entire business at risk. David could have dug his heels in about lease terms, but he would have lost a good tenant and then had to find a replacement willing to take on a unit in a building with a known rat problem.
Instead, David took the approach of: “This is a serious problem, I’m taking responsibility, here’s what I’m doing to fix it, here’s the timeline.” And you know what? Emma not only stayed, she’s now one of his most reliable tenants with an excellent relationship.
My honest advice: don’t let it get to rent withholding discussions. If you’re at that stage, you’ve already let the problem go too far.
Act immediately:
- Acknowledge the problem seriously
- Get the CCTV survey booked ASAP
- Keep the tenant informed of every step
- Get the repairs done as quickly as possible
- Consider offering a small rent reduction or service charge credit for the period of disruption as a goodwill gesture
Prevention is key. If you’ve got evidence of rodent activity reported by tenants, treat it as urgent and get it properly investigated. The cost of a CCTV survey and drainage repairs is nothing compared to losing tenants, getting into legal disputes, or having a retail park with a reputation for pest problems.
David nearly lost multiple tenants and £200,000 worth of annual contracts. The drainage repairs cost him a fraction of that. Do the maths – proper maintenance is always the cheaper option.