Rental Property Investor · Arlington, VA · Member since 2015 · 40 posts · 3 votes
A tenant contacted me because she thinks she hears rats in the walls. The apartment is the top floor of a duplex which itself is a row house.
My understanding is that getting rid of pest is not the landlord’s responsibility. Any thoughts?
Thank you,
Tarik
Baltimore, MD
You can provide traps. You can seal up all openings in the apartments, and all openings into the building in the basement. You can't control the openings in your neighbors houses. But if you do everything you can do, you should be able to prevent rodents from coming into the finished space. You may not ever be fully successful in eliminating their noise inside wall cavities. Tip - cut a small hole where the noise is coming from and drop in some rodent poison.
You can provide traps. You can seal up all openings in the apartments, and all openings into the building in the basement. You can't control the openings in your neighbors houses. But if you do everything you can do, you should be able to prevent rodents from coming into the finished space. You may not ever be fully successful in eliminating their noise inside wall cavities. Tip - cut a small hole where the noise is coming from and drop in some rodent poison.
@Tarik N. I don't think you can take a position that getting rid of rodents is the tenant's responsibility. You have to do what you can to prevent them and offer some way to keep them from coming back. Rodents are dangerous, they carry diseases. You don't want someone getting sick or taking you to court because of an infestation. If the tenant is the cause of the issue, they need to correct the problem or leave.
@Tarik N. I agree that this in this case it is the landlord's responsibility to seal up holes and set traps. Tenant is responsible for keeping a clean house with no food the rats can get to.
You might also try working with your neighbor to combat the rat problem (hopefully the adjacent house is not vacant). The rats will be able to chew through plaster and drywall, but if you seal the exterior wall on your neighbor's house it will prevent them from entering.
Check your lease, and your conscience. My lease says that tenants are responsible for rodents, however if the problem is no fault of their own (i.e., they are keeping a clean house) then I don't want the tenant to have to live in a rat infested home and I will step in and hire an exterminator.
Make sure all holes from gas lines, a/c lines etc. are sealed. Rats like to burrow so have the exterminator check under any decks or around patios. If there is a crawlspace treat that also. Once that is taken care of have them set lockable poison traps around building and re-bait for a few months.
Myunderstandiing is in Baltimore City landlords are legally responsible for rats and tenants are responsible for mice. The new inspection law Might have modified that. (@Matt Schelberg)
Your lease cannot pass responsibility on to tenants that are yours by law..
From a practical standpoint it is your property. If you want to keep good tenants then it is pretty much all your responsibility.