Bats: advice for homeowners
Bats are often found in homes, usually during the summer months. People generally won’t notice, and issues will arise only rarely.
For information on carrying out works to a property (including minor or major repairs) that may affect bats, please see our Bats: Licences for development page for further information, or call the Licensing helpline on 01463 725364.
Bats In Houses
With the loss of traditional roost sites, many bat species have adapted to living in buildings such as our homes. Bats are usually seasonal visitors to houses, being present for only four or five months of the year. They form maternity colonies during May and June and then leave during August and early September once the young bats are weaned and can fly.
Bat colonies usually live happily with their human landlords, but householders may have concerns about living with bats, or occasional issues, such as bats accessing the living spaces of the house or roosts becoming noisy. NatureScot and the Bat Conservation Trust are happy to provide advice on how to deal with any concerns.
Bats in Houses helpline
You can contact our NatureScot Bats in Houses helpline if you think you have bats in your home and they are causing a public health or safety problem. Often problems with bats are one-off events and can be easily resolved by the homeowner themselves after receiving advice.
Our phone line is operated from Monday to Friday, if no-one is available to take your call, please leave a voicemail and we will aim to respond to all calls within 24 hours (excluding weekends). Please note that we operate a reduced service between September and March.
Where necessary we may arrange for one of our experienced bat workers to visit your house to assess the situation and provide additional guidance. There is no charge for this, and we offer the service whether you own or rent your home, as long as you live in it full time. Whilst our bat workers are able to collect information that will help to resolve the problems caused by bats, they cannot carry out any works to your building, exclude or take away the bats.
If you have a grounded bat in your property then you should call either the Bat Conservation Trust Bat Helpline (0345 1300 228).
Bats in Houses telephone: 01463 725 165
Email: [email protected]
For Ecologists
From 2025, NatureScot Licensing will accept people with a bat survey licence carrying out a site visit to residential properties as part of their commercial services to provide management advice to those experiencing health and safety issues. These surveys are a lighter approach and involves at least one dusk activity survey and internal roost inspections where safe to do so. Additional guidance for ecologists wishing to carrying out these surveys is in development and will appear here once complete. The aim of these surveys is to advise the homeowner/ tenant on how to manage and live with the bats, providing advice on exclusions as a last resort.
Licences for exclusion will require a Bats in Houses Application form and completed Bat Roost Report Form with the licence holder to be the homeowner/ tenant. These documents are currently under development and will appear here once complete.
Find out more
Contacts
If you already have a licence number, include it in the subject line of your email, or have it to hand when you call.
You should receive an automatic confirmation email from us if you send an email. If you do not receive this, please phone us on the number below:
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