Where Are Squirrels Getting Into the Roof of My March Home? – Practical Local Guide

This changes the whole search, and it is the reason a thorough inspection of one property sometimes finds nothing at all while the noise continues.

Why the Void Is Continuous

In a good number of terraces, semis and converted buildings, the party wall does not extend fully into the roof space, or it does so with gaps. Where that is the case the roof void is one space across several dwellings, whatever the deeds say about who owns what.

So an animal entering at a gable end, or at a lifted verge on the end property, has access to the whole run — and it will nest wherever suits it, which may be above your bedroom rather than above the one with the hole.

What That Means for the Search

• Look at the whole terrace, not just your own frontage. The gable ends of the end properties are the most exposed part of the block
• Look at both elevations — front and back, along the whole run
• Look at the party wall in your own loft and see whether it goes right up to the underside of the roof, or stops short
• Ask the neighbours. Awkward, and frequently the fastest way to find out where it is getting in
• Look for the concentration of evidence in your own space — which end of the loft is it heaviest?

What Can Be Done

1. Deal with what is in your roof space, so you are not living with it.
2. Close the party wall gaps where you can reach them and where that is yours to do. It will not fix the block, but it makes your section a considerably less useful place to be.
3. Proof your own roofline properly, because that is what you control.
4. Get it documented, in writing, so you have something to show a neighbour, a landlord, a freeholder or a managing agent.
5. Raise it with the neighbours if the evidence points along the block. In a terrace the honest answer is frequently that the work needs doing across several properties.

Who Deals With What

• Your own roofline and your own roof space — yours
• A shared or common roof void in a converted block — usually the freeholder or managing agent
• A structural defect in a rented property — usually the landlord
• A neighbouring property's roofline — theirs, and a conversation

And Be Realistic About the Outcome

Where the void is genuinely continuous and the entry is elsewhere, work confined to your property reduces the problem rather than ending it. That is worth knowing before you spend, and we would rather say it than let you discover it afterwards.

A written survey setting out what was found and where the evidence points is frequently what actually moves this along, and it is a fixed cost.