BiggerPockets

It should say in your lease.

My rental agreement says that the landlord does extermination between tenants and turns the unit over pest-free. After move-in, the tenant is responsible for pest control.

(I exclude termites and powder post beetles, but the lease doesn't actually say so).

The law might vary from state to state, so you need a state specific answer.

Water bugs are like cockroaches, aren't they? Combat gel should kill them. It's cheap and easy.

I just looked at our Landlord Tenant Handbook, and it states that pest control is not necessarily a maintenance responsibility for the landlord. The lease should specify whether or not pest control will be provided by the landlord. It may become a landlord issue when housing or health codes require it because the property's conditions violate health and safety codes.

As you mentioned Brian, when I purchase a multi-unit I will likely go under contract with a pest control company because, in this type of dwelling there will be more people in the building with different characters (some clean, some not so), but in a single family home (since I'm not required to) I think the tenant being the only family there, and having more control over the presence or not of pest being in the home should handle it, unless of course we're talking about termites.

I'm all for pre-move in pest control.

Originally posted by P NW:
It should say in your lease.

My rental agreement says that the landlord does extermination between tenants and turns the unit over pest-free. After move-in, the tenant is responsible for pest control.

Mine says the same thing. I go over the lease with the tenant prior to move in and have them sign each page, and make sure they understand this item.

I have a property where the house next door (these are rowhouses) was vacant and the grass in the yard was over 3 feet tall. Mice started invading my property, so I paid for the exterminator a few times over several months and that took care of the problem. It wasn't the tenant's fault.

As others have done, I usually exterminate the rowhouse properties between tenants, because although my tenants have been generally clean, the neighbors are not always the same way.

Sometimes bugs just show up. Sometimes they show up for a reason. I don't offer pest control in my rental agreements. However, if ants start showing up (very common around here) I will have the property sprayed. If cock roaches start showing up, I will inspect the property to see why they have suddenly decided to move in. Like a rolling stone gathers no moss, a clean house (typically) gathers no bugs. I know there are exceptions, and those exceptions I will gladly pay for.

If you deliver a pest free home at time of lease contract, other than termites, it should stay that way; however, ants are common so most landlords will agree to pay for such treatments. "Water bugs" as they were called in the OG post are likely American or Oriental cockroaches, of which, do not infest indoors. So if they are found indoors, they have come in from the exterior but will not infest, mate, or lay eggs inside. Those disgusting creatures are the German cockroaches which are common in dirty kitchens/bathrooms (anywhere indoors where moisture and a food source is available) and most common in apartments. For an SFR, I would make sure my lease held the tenants responsible for such an infestation. For ants/rodents, I would assume responsibility. Rodents can only get inside if the home is not sealed from all parts of the exterior (or through an open door left unattended and usually at dusk (rodents are nocturnal creatures).

For apartment buildings, it is part of the owners cost of doing business as tenants will not pay for cockroach infestations and it would be difficult to prove which unit was the cause of the starting infestation at times.

Joel, that is a very good item to implement, in fact, most pest control companies have these types of sheets already made up and give them to customers, you should be able to access them from reputable companies