Housing rights campaigners have called for the removal of adverts on Facebook for an eviction company that has been accused of likening tenants to vermin. The ads – which feature a piece of cheese and describe tenants as “pests” – are for a Midlands-based company called Remove a Tenant, which will evict people from properties across England and Wales and specialises in domestic repossessions. Offering packages costing from £50, the adverts ask: “Are your tenants household pests? If so we are sure we can help.”

Seb Klier, campaigns manager at Generation Rent, the operating name of the National Private Tenants Organisation, said comparing tenants to vermin provided a shocking insight into the way renters are viewed by some landlords and agents. “When trying to find a home, it’s common for renters to encounter a long list of prohibitions – no benefits claimants, no families, no pets – which not only reduces their choice on the market, but creates a negative atmosphere before anyone even moves in,” he said. “This negativity increases in a market where a tenant who makes requests for repairs, or attempts to negotiate down proposed rent increases, is too often seen as a nuisance to be got rid of.

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“If we are serious about having a long-term, professional, private rented sector in the UK, it’s vital that tenants can treat where they are living as their actual home, and not just be viewed as a temporary inconvenience to the owner of the property.”

John Bibby, policy officer at the housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said: “It’s beyond unacceptable to see tenants being compared to rodents, and an especially grim irony when nearly one in nine private rented homes has recently had a pest problem.

“We’re amazed this advert was posted in the first place, and it should be taken down immediately. Between shelling out for colossal rents, being forced to live in flats crawling with mice or rats, and having the threat of eviction hanging over them, many renters have enough to deal with without this sort of rubbish.”

An employee at Remove a Tenant said that the adverts had been designed by a marketing company some time ago and that it had not received any complaints about them.

The company’s website states: “It is often said that the law regarding tenant eviction is always on the side of the tenant. This is true to a degree and forms part of the protection against eviction. Tenants, regardless of circumstances, do have rights and this is why the steps taken have to be carried out correctly in order to get a successful possession.”

We're amazed this advert was posted in the first place and it should be taken down immediately John Bibby, Shelter

The firm adds that it has “significant expertise” in housing benefit claims and offers a “full eviction service”, which includes both court costs and the costs of solicitor representation in court.

New analysis last month revealed that a record number of renters are being evicted from their homes, with over 100 tenants a day losing the roof over their head. The spiralling cost of renting a property and a long-running freeze to housing benefit are being blamed for the rising number of evictions among Britain’s growing army of tenants.

More than 40,000 tenants in England were evicted in 2015, according to a study by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.