you need to notify your landlord ASAP; you can't pro-rate for nights he doesn't know.

Or call the city's department of animal control; they might come right away, since bats can be rabid.

Do NOT go near it, bcs of rabies.

Haha,my husband's dad had about 30 bats flying around his house once.They kept getting in through the roof.

Anyways,he was told it's illegal to kill them. Animal Control had to come out and trap them and remove them.

My advice is to call Animal Control right away.I'm even sure there is much your landlord can do about it.

Don't mean to sound snarky, but what if Animal Control can't catch the bat right away, what if it takes a couple days to succeed? Is animal control then responsible for paying for rents on nights you couldn't sleep? What if they have to delegate trapping it to a specialty service who handles raccoons, bats, etc. in attics and that service can't come out till tomorrow night?

My point is, some things in life are just 'an act of God' ;)

I had a tenant who called about a bat in his apt. Aparently it was injured because it could only crawl around and not fly. The tenant had 2 cats and I was surprised that they hadn't killed it. The renter said , "Now I know what that strange noise was that I had been hearing for the past week.
Anyway, since it couldn't fly I decided I would catch it. I was worried about the rabies thing so I brought over a large shop vac. We found it behind the refrigerator and sucked it up. Then I called animal control. They tested and it was just a bat.
That tenant asked to move after that. He just couldn't feel comfortable in the apt. I understood and let him out of his lease.

this happened to me wayyy back when I was 20. I caught the bat while it was attached to the wall, with a metal colander attached to a broom handle the same way one would catch a bee, slipped a piece of cardboard to seal the colander and released the bat out the balconey. I honestly never thought of calling the landlord.

Good Luck

Lynne

I used to work at a place that would get bats inside. The owner had a fishing net to catch them and would release them since they are helpful little creatures. He would net them and put the net outside on a sidewalk and the bats would eventurally free themselves and go on with their intended lives. If they didn't free themselves in a timely manner he would go back and shake the net to loosen them. Most bats don't attack people and live on insects. Vampire bats are usually found in the wild or near farms and feed on penned livestock, not to say that they couldn't wander into a city............

I suppose you could call an animal control unit to come out. Or you could just call an exterminator from the Yellow Pages. They usually come out right away since you are paying them big bucks. Check with your landlord as to who he thinks should pay for this though.

Does the owner provide window screens on your windows? If he does not, he may be violating civil code if you are in California. Did you report the presence of the bat right away, or did you wait? If you did report it right away and the owner did not act reasonably quickly, then I would say you might have a chance at some remuneration for nights spent elsewhere. Where you able to stay with a friend, or did you have to rent lodging? If you did not report it immediately, you cannot reasonably assume that the owner should be responsible for nights lost in the apartment prior to your reporting the bat to him.

If there are screens and a bat entered somehow, it should be treated like mice or rats or ants, however, in this case,IMMEDIATELY, because it is a bat.(Awful feeling, huh?) The owner has legal responsibility for reasonable attempt at keeping your dwelling vermin free. So, you should inform him about the bat and he will need to eradicate it. Also, you might call Vector Control and see if they will respond.

When I was in property management, if we received a call that someone had even seen a mouse or rat, we immediately went to the apartment with a trap and bait and if the situation called for it, we called Vector Control. We also acted promptly for ant eradication. We didn't want our residents to be uncomfortable with a situation like this. It makes sense to nip the problem in the bud.