Uninvited guests spooked us all

About two weeks ago, one of my HMO tenants messaged to say they kept hearing movement in the loft in the middle of the night. I told him it was probably birds or mice and that I would check it on my next inspection.

Then, two days ago, another tenant sent me WhatsApp message saying she had noticed the same noises. She also mentioned a small amount of insulation dust on the landing under the loft hatch. That pulled me up a bit. Dust and noises together do make you think. I told myself not to jump to conclusions, but once two people mention something, you cannot ignore it.

She also told me another tenant said food had gone missing from the communal kitchen. Only small things. A sausage and an open packet of ham she had forgotten to put back in the fridge one evening. Nothing dramatic, but enough to make people feel uneasy. Had another tenant eaten it?

They asked if I could check the CCTV covering the hallway, which I did. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so I arranged to go into the property the very next day.

I arrived at the property at around midday yesterday to do the inspection. Stupidly, I was alone because my tenants were all out at work. That’s when I noticed the loft hatch was not sitting perfectly flat. Only a few millimetres out, but I know that hatch, and it is normally tight. Between that and the comments from the tenants, my head went straight to the possibility of someone slipping into the loft and sleeping there. I know it sounds dramatic, but you read enough HMO enforcement stories, and it gets into your thinking.

I had a thermal camera in the car, so out of curiosity, I pointed it at the ceiling. There was a warm patch in exactly the same area the tenants had mentioned. That made my stomach drop. It suggested someone or something was living up there, not just mice, birds or a draft or a loose tile.

By this point, I had convinced myself that someone was hiding in the loft. I pictured bedding, bags and a long conversation with the council about overcrowding. There was no way I was going to check up in the loft with nobody else around, so I contacted all of my tenants and arranged to go back later that night. I also took a burly fella from my local gym with me for extra backup, just in case anything kicked off.

When we went back to the property later that evening, my tenants were all at home and looking quite pensive. The lad who had contacted me first about this was clutching a rounders bat that his sister had left when she last visited.

My hands were actually shaking when I got the ladder out. I climbed up slowly with my phone torch, half expecting to see a face looking back at me.

At first, it looked completely normal. Just insulation, joists and a few old boxes. Then I heard the faintest sound of rustling from behind a stack of tiles. I froze. Something moved. I edged the torch around and nearly fell backwards.

It was a cat, a feral one, and it had a litter of tiny kittens curled up beside it.

That explained the warm patch on the thermal camera. The noises at night were the mother coming and going. The insulation dust on the landing was from where she had nudged the loft hatch, trying to find a warm route back in during the colder nights.

Everything made perfect sense the moment I saw them. I felt relieved, a bit shaken, and then strangely protective when I realised the kittens were barely bigger than my hand.

I climbed down, closed the hatch and stood on the landing for a good minute trying to process it. I had worked myself up to expect the worst, and instead I had found a mother just trying to keep her litter warm.

So now my question is the real one I need help with: what is the correct thing to do about the cats, and who should I contact first so they can be moved safely?