Residential Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are and how to reach us

Exuro Pest Management Ltd (“Exuro”, “we”, “us”) provides whole property heat treatment for insects, particularly bed bugs, across London.

Registered in England and Wales, company number 17397789. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom.

• Phone: 020 4652 7753, 24 hours. WhatsApp: 07842 815251, 6am to 10pm. These are our business numbers.
• Email: hello@exuro.co.uk. For anything about your personal information: privacy@exuro.co.uk.
• Initial response visits and inspections take place between 6am and 10pm. Heat treatments can run through the day and the night. They usually start in the morning or the evening, and we confirm your start time when you book.

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply to residential heat treatment bookings made with Exuro by a consumer. Separate terms apply to business customers such as hotels, landlords with portfolios and letting agents.

By booking, you confirm that you have read these terms and that the information you have given us about your property is accurate.

3. Our service

3.1 What heat treatment is

We treat bed bugs by raising the temperature of your home and holding it long enough to kill bed bugs at every life stage, including eggs. We measure temperature at the coldest points in each room using calibrated data loggers, and we keep that data as the record of your treatment.

We are heat treatment specialists. Insects are our main focus, particularly bed bugs. We do not carry out spray or chemical treatments, and we do not treat other pests as part of a bed bug booking.

We do not heat or monitor kitchens, toilets and bathrooms. They are not rooms we intend to treat, because heat can damage sealant, grout and plastic pipework, and bed bugs very rarely live in them. We keep their doors closed. They will still warm up, but they usually lag behind the rest of the property.

3.2 Initial response

An initial response visit is £140. We attend within 24 hours and carry out containment. One containment kit is needed for every bed. The initial response includes one kit per bedroom, and each additional bed needs its own kit at £45. Bunk beds count as one bed.

“Within 24 hours” always means that we will attend within 24 hours. It never means that we will start or finish treatment within 24 hours, including on Express.

If you book a full treatment, the initial response is included in that price. Every treatment starts with an inspection, either at an initial response visit or when we arrive on the treatment day.

Once we have carried out an inspection, the initial response charge covers it and is not refundable, whatever happens afterwards. The initial response charge is £140, plus £45 for each extra containment kit you added, because containment kits are yours to keep. Any refund we give after an inspection is the amount you paid less the initial response charge.

If we find no evidence of bed bugs, we will tell you and we will not recommend treatment. You can choose not to go ahead, and we refund everything except the initial response charge. If you still want treatment, you sign to confirm that you wish to go ahead even though we did not recommend it.

3.3 Express

Express costs an additional £750. Gold is mandatory with Express and cannot be removed from an Express booking. We attend within 24 hours of payment. Attending means that we arrive and inspect before anything else. It does not mean that treatment will start or finish within 24 hours. When we have inspected, we confirm with you whether the property is safe and ready to treat, and when heating can begin. Your Gold preparation is included and is carried out on the same visit, after we have inspected, so that heating can begin on that visit if the property is safe and ready to treat. If we do not attend within 24 hours of payment, the £750 is refunded. If we cannot treat the property for a reason that is not down to you, such as something about the building that could not reasonably have been known before we arrived, we refund what you have paid, less the initial response charge. If we cannot treat because of something you did, did not do, or did not tell us, including information given in your booking that turns out to be wrong, it counts as a cancellation and at least 50% of what you have paid is kept (section 6.2).

3.4 Gold

With Gold we do the preparation for you. We supply the rails, bags and equipment and we carry out the physical preparation. You only need to put your belongings back afterwards.

We arrange your Gold preparation with you on WhatsApp. It takes place on the treatment day or the day before, depending on our schedule and the size of your property. We may need access to your property on the day before your treatment, so please take this into account when you book. With Express, the preparation is carried out on the same visit (section 3.3).

Even with Gold, you are responsible for:

• Removing all pets from the property for the whole treatment.
• Securing your own valuables, such as cash, jewellery and documents. You are responsible for them.
• Your medication. We never pack, touch or move medication. Keep it with you.
• Your own laundry. Washing clothes and linen is not included in any package. Do it beforehand, and put the clean items in bed bug proof sealed bags so that bed bugs cannot get in. An ordinary zip bag is not enough. Where you can, keep washed and dried items outside the property until the treatment is finished.
• Giving us clear access to the property and to every room being treated.

4. Prices and payment

• Your treatment, or your initial response if that is all you have booked, is paid in full before our team arrives.
• Anything added on the day, such as Gold, extra containment kits or a heat treatment, is paid on site by card using a QR code. It is paid before that work starts. If you booked an initial response and you book your heat treatment with us on the day of that visit, we take £50 off the treatment price. If you decide to book a treatment later, after the visit, the full price applies.
• A conservatory counts as a chargeable room plus £75, included in the total we quote you.
• Flats above the third floor with no lift carry a flat £30 charge. For the sixth floor and above, please call us so we can assess the job properly.

The price we quote is for the service as a whole. It is not broken down into separate elements, and declining any part of it does not reduce the price.

If you book a full case and choose “Anytime in the next 24 hours” for your initial response, we take £50 off your total. This does not apply to an initial response on its own. We will attend within 24 hours of payment and confirm the time with you.

5. Your right to change your mind

If you book online or over the phone, you normally have 14 days to cancel and receive a full refund, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

Most of our customers need treating sooner than that. When you book, you can ask us to start within the 14 day period. If you do, and we complete the treatment before the 14 days are up, you lose the right to cancel for a refund once the work is done. If you cancel part way through, you pay for what we have already done.

6. Cancelling or changing your booking

• Cancel before 10am two days before your treatment date and you receive a full refund, less the initial response charge if we have already carried out an inspection. For example, for a Wednesday treatment, that means before 10am on Monday.
• Cancel after that and we keep at least 50% of the total amount you have paid.

We retain that amount because your booking reserves a treatment day that we cannot fill at short notice, and because we have already committed to costs for your job. It is not a penalty. We will never keep more than we have actually lost.

6.1 If we have to postpone

If we cannot attend because of extreme weather, equipment failure or illness, we will tell you as soon as we know and rebook you free of charge. There is no cancellation fee and no cost to you.

If we have started your treatment but cannot complete it for a reason outside your control, such as equipment failure, a safety shutdown or a building alarm, we will either rebook your treatment for another day at no extra cost to you, or arrange a refund. We will tell you which. If we have already carried out an inspection, a refund is the amount you have paid less the initial response charge. You can return home and live as normally as possible in the meantime, and we will tell you what to do while you wait. Jobs we have already started take priority over new bookings.

6.2 If a treatment cannot be completed for a reason within your control

If we cannot complete your treatment because of something within your control, such as preparation not done, people or pets in the property, access refused or withdrawn, or fire sprinklers that are not as you told us when you booked or have not been switched off as agreed, it is treated as a cancellation after the deadline in section 6, and we keep at least 50% of the total amount you have paid.

7. Preparing your home

Your preparation matters more than almost anything else to whether the treatment works. We will send you a preparation checklist with photographs, and your case manager will talk you through it.

If you prepare the property yourself, all preparation must be finished by 10am two days before your treatment, and you send us a short video of each room by then. For example, for a Wednesday treatment, the deadline is 10am on Monday. The only thing left until the morning of the treatment is your beds: strip them fully and pull them away from the walls before we arrive. The same deadline is the point after which cancelling costs at least 50%, so if the preparation is too much, you can choose before it to switch to our Gold service, where we do the preparation for you, move to a new date at no charge, or cancel for a full refund, less the initial response charge if we have already carried out an inspection.

If you have Gold, you do not need to meet this preparation deadline. You must still remove the items listed in the first point below before we arrive, or as you leave the property, so that we can treat, and section 3.4 sets out what else stays your responsibility.

By the deadline you must:

• Remove all aerosols, gas canisters, lighters and lighter fuel, oxygen equipment, loose batteries and power banks (including e-bike and scooter batteries), vapes, fire extinguishers, paints, solvents and other flammable liquids, candles, medication and make up. This applies to every booking, Gold included. Brushes can stay.
• Remove or tell us about anything else that is best kept out of the heat, as listed on the preparation checklist, such as musical instruments, vinyl records, photographs, artwork, chocolate and wine.
• Remove electronic items where possible.
• Move furniture and belongings at least 30cm away from the walls.
• Put all fruit and vegetables, and other fresh food, in the fridge.
• Remove all pets from the property. There are no exceptions to this.
• Remove all live plants, drain any waterbed, empty the space under divan beds, and open up and empty any ottoman bed. Mattresses stay on the beds. Take any modular sofa apart.
• Have every bed stripped of all its sheets when we arrive, with the sheets washed and dried, which is best, or hung loose over door frames. Duvets and pillows may be hung up or left neatly and loosely on the bed, and are best washed and dried on high heat for at least half an hour first. Soft toys and stuffed animals are left loose in the room.
• Check that your belongings, such as coats, boots, shoes and bags, can withstand temperatures of up to 60°C. This is your responsibility, and we are not responsible for heat damage to belongings you have left in the property.
• Leave wardrobes and drawers about half empty with hanging clothes loose, and spread books out on shelves.
• Pressurised items always leave the property, including from the kitchen, toilet and bathroom. Those rooms are not heated or monitored (section 3.1).

Washable items leave the property only once washed at 60°C or above and dried on high heat for at least 30 minutes. Clean items are then put in bed bug proof sealed bags so that bed bugs cannot get in, or kept outside the property until the treatment is finished where you can. Items that cannot be washed, such as a laptop, can leave once they have been inspected and wiped down thoroughly, and toiletries are steamed, wiped down or washed one by one, so that nothing carries bed bugs out with it. We recommend steaming where you have a steamer, but a thorough wipe down is acceptable.

If you plan to throw away furniture or a mattress, leave it where it is for the treatment and dispose of it afterwards, not before.

If we arrive and the preparation has not been done properly, we may be unable to treat. If that happens, it is treated as a cancellation by you and we keep at least 50% of the total amount paid.

8. Access, presence and keys

• About an hour before every appointment our desk phones you to give an estimated time of arrival, and sends you a message as well. Please keep your phone on and within reach.
• On the day of your appointment our desk handles all communication with you, using our WhatsApp number. You can contact your case manager at any time, and they will speak to the desk about anything on the day. Every message the desk sends you is also copied to your case manager, who looks after your case.
• You must be present at the property when we attend, unless we already hold your keys.
• Keys are handed to us in person. We do not collect keys from key safes or accept them by post.
• Your keys are held by the named technician on your job, tagged with a number that carries no address or name, and logged.
• We return your keys however you tell us to, and we record your instruction before the keys leave our hands.

If we cannot get access on the day, we will try to contact you, leave a message, and attempt contact again at a reasonable time. If we still cannot reach you, it is treated as a cancellation by you.

9. On the day

Heat treatment takes most of a day. We set the property up fully before the heater is lit, then hold the temperature and check the property at least every hour.

Your case manager messages you three times while you are out: when heating starts, when your home has reached treatment temperature, and when heating is complete and cooling has started. If anything changes during the day, we tell you at the time.

Nobody may be inside the property while it is being heated. Nobody may come back in while we are working unless our technician has agreed. If anyone refuses to leave, or comes back without our agreement, we will stop work, and we may treat it as a cancellation by you, in which case the cancellation charges apply.

When we finish, we open windows and cool the property for an hour before we leave. We advise waiting at least two hours after treatment finishes before you go back in, which is about an hour after we leave. When you return is your choice. We take and record a carbon monoxide reading before we leave, or immediately before we return your keys if you are not there. We leave your windows as you instruct us on the day, and close and secure them all if you ask.

9.1 Where you sleep

Where you spend the night of your treatment is entirely up to you. Our advice is to sleep in your own bed, in your own home, once we have handed it back to you. That is the best way to be sure the treatment has worked, and it is what we would do ourselves.

10. Things we cannot treat

We will tell you before we book if any of this applies, and we will always inspect first where we can.

• Properties with orange bulb (57°C) fire sprinkler heads, or concealed heads behind a flat cover plate, unless the building manager, freeholder or managing agent switches the system off for your home and confirms that to us in writing before the day. We never isolate, cover or interfere with a sprinkler system ourselves. When you book, you tell us whether your home has sprinklers and what type. If what we find on the day is different, or the system has not been switched off as agreed, we cannot treat, and section 6.2 applies.
• Heavily hoarded properties, depending on severity. We will tell you honestly if we cannot treat yours safely or effectively.
• Any property where we cannot reach the temperature needed to kill bed bugs.

10.1 Items at risk

Most household items are unaffected by heat treatment. The vast majority are perfectly fine at 60°C or below, and problems tend to begin only above that. A few items are more sensitive. Pianos, safes, antiques, musical instruments, sealed electronics, candles, vinyl records, photographs and some adhesives can be damaged by heat.

If you have any of these, tell us before we book. We will inspect them, record them on your Authority to Treat form, and ask you to sign before we go ahead. If we find an item at risk on the day that was not declared, we will try to contact you before we start heating. If we cannot reach you, we will carry on with the treatment as planned and the item stays in the property at your own risk.

Items at risk are usually fine, but they can be damaged by heat. That is why we call them items at risk. This list is a guide, not a complete list. You know your belongings better than we do, so it is your responsibility to identify anything that may be sensitive to heat and to take it out of the property or tell us about it before we book. If you are unsure about something, ask us and we will gladly help. If in doubt, take it out.

11. Cleaning

We do not ask you to clean before treatment. If you choose to hoover beforehand, take the bag out of the hoover or empty the canister straight away, seal it in a bag and put it in the outside bin immediately, because it can contain bed bugs or eggs.

12. Your certificates

12.1 Certificate of Treatment

Issued on the day, once your treatment is complete and the temperature data confirms it was carried out correctly. It carries your treatment data. We do not issue a certificate for a treatment that was not completed.

12.2 Clearance Certificate

Issued on day 14, once you have confirmed there is no further activity. If we left interceptors or monitors in your home, we need a photograph of each one before we can issue it, because they are there to show us any activity. We will also ask for photographs or confirmation of what you have seen. If we cannot get what we need, we will ask up to three times and then close the request without issuing a Clearance Certificate. If photographs and a conversation are not enough, we may arrange to check in person, at no charge.

Not receiving a Clearance Certificate does not affect your warranty.

13. Warranty

Your warranty stays with the home that was treated, so it covers whoever owns or lives there while it lasts. It starts on the date the Certificate of Treatment is issued and carries on automatically for a landlord, a new tenant or a new owner. Nothing needs to be transferred.

• Gold: 180 days, including one free reheat.
• All other treatments: 60 days, including one free reheat.

There is one free reheat for each warranty period, whoever claims it. The warranty is a promise of a free reheat if there is evidence of ongoing bed bugs during the warranty period. It does not promise that bed bugs will never return.

You can check the warranty on any property at exuro.co.uk/verify, using the number on its Certificate of Treatment, or by following the link or QR code printed on it. It shows whether the warranty is active and when it ends.

13.1 How to make a claim

• Message us on WhatsApp on 07842 815251 (6am to 10pm) or email hello@exuro.co.uk with the certificate number from the Certificate of Treatment. We cannot accept a claim without it. If you have lost it, the person who booked the treatment, the landlord or the managing agent will have it.
• Send us whatever you have that suggests bed bugs may still be active: photographs or a short video of what you have found, including anything in the interceptors or monitors we left.
• There is no deadline for telling us. As long as you contact us within the warranty period, we will consider your claim.
• We do not carry out inspection visits under the warranty. A claim is decided on what you send us. When we arrive to reheat, we check the property before we start.
• We will not normally carry out a reheat sooner than 14 days after the treatment. We may do so at our discretion if what you send gives us a strong indication that bed bugs are still active. Eggs and surviving activity take time to show, and returning too early tells us nothing.
• We arrange the date and time of a reheat with you. If we cannot get access at the time we agreed, the reheat counts as carried out and the warranty has been honoured. We will not try a second time, but at our discretion we may offer you another reheat at half the price of the initial treatment.
• The property needs to be prepared for a reheat in the same way as for the first treatment. We send you the preparation checklist when we book it.
• If we left interceptors or monitors, please leave them where they are for the whole of the warranty and check them once a week.

13.2 What a reheat is

A reheat is a reheat of the heat treatment only. It does not include Gold or Express, even if the first booking did. Heat and preparation are separate services: the warranty gives you a free reheat, not free preparation. For a reheat you prepare the property yourself, or you add Gold again and pay for it at the price at the time. Gold and Express are separate services that you pay for and add if you want them.

If a reheat is not covered by the warranty, we will tell you before we book it, and it is charged at the price at the time.

13.3 A third visit

If a third visit is needed, it is charged at half the price of the initial treatment, and only once the outside source of the bed bugs has been identified and dealt with.

13.4 Second hand furniture

Please do not bring second hand furniture, mattresses or upholstery into the property during the warranty period. They are one of the most common ways bed bugs are brought back into a home.

If we find that bed bugs have been brought into the property on second hand furniture, mattresses or upholstery after the treatment, a reheat for that is not covered by the warranty. This does not apply to the belongings of a new tenant or new owner who moves in during the warranty period.

A new introduction from outside, for example from travel or a visitor, does not void your warranty. Bed bugs that come from a neighbouring home are covered in section 13.6.

13.5 Treated areas

The warranty covers a home we have treated in full. If any room or area was not treated because you asked us not to, or because of something within your control (section 6.2), the warranty does not apply. We record any area left untreated on your Authority to Treat before we start.

If we cannot heat an area because of the building, such as a sealed void or a room we were not given access to, we record it on your Authority to Treat before we start. The warranty does not cover bed bugs that come from that area.

13.6 Flats, HMOs and shared buildings

In a flat, a house in multiple occupation (HMO), a terraced or semi detached house, or any building where homes share walls, floors or ceilings, bed bugs can come through from a neighbouring home that has not been treated. When you make a claim, we look for signs of this.

If the evidence shows that the bed bugs have come from a neighbouring home that has not been treated, a reheat is not covered by the warranty. We will tell you what we found and help you raise it with your landlord, managing agent or neighbour. Once the source has been dealt with, we can treat again at the price in section 13.3.

In an HMO, the warranty only applies if every room and shared area in the HMO was treated at the same time. If only your room or part of the HMO was treated, there is no warranty, and we record this on your Authority to Treat before we start.

If you book a treatment of a room or part of a shared home, such as a room in a shared house, an HMO, a hostel or lodgings, no warranty applies to that treatment. You confirm this when you book.

13.7 Keeping your warranty

The warranty does not apply if, after the treatment, shop bought bed bug sprays or powders are used in the property, or if interceptors or monitors we left are removed before the warranty ends.

14. If something is damaged

Please tell us as soon as you notice, ideally at handover or within 48 hours. We photograph your property before we start, and those photographs are how we assess a claim, so the sooner you tell us the better we can help. This is a request and does not affect your legal rights.

We log every report and assess it ourselves. We will keep you updated while it is assessed.

15. Our team

Your treatment is carried out by our own trained people, not subcontracted to another company. Every technician carries photo identification. Please ask to see it.

Our team will leave immediately if anyone at the property is threatening, abusive or behaves inappropriately towards them, and we may stop work and retain up to the full amount paid, reflecting the costs we have incurred and the day we cannot refill. We will not return to that customer.

16. Referral codes

• A referral code gives £100 off a full heat treatment. It cannot be used against an initial response or any other charge.
• One code per treatment. Codes cannot be combined with other offers.
• Codes can be shared freely and used any number of times.
• Only customers who have paid Exuro can earn rewards from their own code. The full terms are in our Referral Scheme Terms (EX-TC-003).

17. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, tell us. We acknowledge every complaint within two working days and give a full response within ten working days.

Please write to complaints@exuro.co.uk, message us on WhatsApp on 07842 815251, or phone us on 020 4652 7753.

If we cannot settle your complaint, we will tell you in writing and name an approved alternative dispute resolution provider that could consider it. You are not obliged to use it, and you keep your legal rights.

18. Your information

We explain what we collect, why, how long we keep it and what rights you have in our Privacy Notice. Job records, including treatment data and photographs, are kept for six years. Photographs are only used for marketing if you have agreed to it separately, and you can withdraw that at any time.

19. Our responsibility to you

We will carry out your treatment with reasonable care and skill, as the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires.

We take every reasonable care with your home and belongings, and our team is trained to do so. Heat treatment still carries a small risk to some items, so we cannot promise that nothing will be affected. We are responsible for loss or damage we cause by failing to take reasonable care. We are not responsible for damage to items that should have been taken out of the property or declared to us under section 10, or for damage that was not caused by a failure on our part to take reasonable care. We do not limit our liability where the law does not allow it, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

We are also not responsible for: damage caused by a condition that existed before we arrived, such as damp, rot, existing cracks, damage caused by pests, or wiring and fixtures that were already faulty, loose or failing, unless our failure to take reasonable care made it worse; or illness, injury, loss or damage that results from you or anyone else not following our safety instructions, for example staying in the property during treatment or going back in before we say it is safe.

We are not responsible for loss or damage that was not foreseeable when you booked, or for business losses, such as loss of income. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it was obvious that it would happen, or if you and we both knew it might happen when you booked.

Our total liability to you for any one booking is limited to the price you paid for that booking. This limit does not apply to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, to fraud, or to any other liability that the law does not allow us to limit.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights. If you want free advice about your rights, contact Citizens Advice.

20. General

• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.
• If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
• We may update these terms. The version that applies to you is the one published when you booked.