Section 8 & mice what are the expectations. Give me your opinion

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Section 8 & mice what are the expectations. Give me your opinion

Rita Medeiros
Rental Property Investor · Pompano beach, FL · Member since 2017 · 478 posts · 194 votes

Section 8 tenant has asked for extermination for mice. She found a dead mouse in kitchen. Tenant is asking for any holes to be closed up. The home has passed the section 8 inspection. There were no mice when she took possession of home. What are section 8 requirements regarding this issue. Would the landlords out there recommend providing extermination service to make tenant happy, or remind her that the home was rodent free at beginning of her lease. Thank you in advance for any feedback or experience you can provide. 

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Patti RobertsonBusiness Member
Property Manager · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
7y

The requirement is that the house meet habitability standards, and building code standards say a house must be pest free to be habitable. It would be your responsibility to ensure that any points of entry are closed up.  It would be the tenant's responsibility to ensure they don't encourage rodent entry (leaving doors open, opening the crawl cover, leaving food out, etc.) For rodents, we always send someone to ensure all holes are sealed.  Only if the tenant caused the issue can you hold them responsible for it.

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  • Patti RobertsonBusiness Member
    Property Manager · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    7y

    The requirement is that the house meet habitability standards, and building code standards say a house must be pest free to be habitable. It would be your responsibility to ensure that any points of entry are closed up.  It would be the tenant's responsibility to ensure they don't encourage rodent entry (leaving doors open, opening the crawl cover, leaving food out, etc.) For rodents, we always send someone to ensure all holes are sealed.  Only if the tenant caused the issue can you hold them responsible for it.

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  • Catherine Emert
    Realtor · Bend, OR · Member since 2018 · 323 posts · 224 votes
    7y

    @Patti Robertson I agree, however in Oregon if a tenant is doing anything to cause mice then they would be responsible for the bill.

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  • Patti RobertsonBusiness Member
    Property Manager · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    7y

    @Catherine Emert - In Virginia too, and likely in every state, tenants are responsible for damage they cause, including a pest infestation.  When a property has rats and mice, it is almost always due to an opening allowing them to come in from the outside.  Unless a tenant plowed a hole in the foundation or siding, or just left the doors wide open all hours of the day, one would be hard pressed to say they caused a rodent infestation.  A landlord is responsible for ensuring there are no places that are letting the rodents in and for correcting any places they are getting in.

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  • Anthony Bellesbach
    New to Real Estate · Waukesha · Member since 2019 · 96 posts · 43 votes
    7y

    i would use steel wool in any holes then caulk over that so they will not want to eat that. Keep any plants or tree/branches away from the house even the roof. Most get in by the a/c unit.  Then say you took care of the issue. And wait and see. Also if u got a contract to do a look thou 2 times a year or whatever you got in place see if they got food laying around or anything that would want the mice to cone back. 

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  • Michael Noto
    Real Estate Agent · Southington, CT · Member since 2008 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    7y

    @Rita Medeiros For you to prove that the mice are as a result of anything she is doing since she moved in would be impossible. Be thankful you have a section 8 tenant who is coming to you first with this issue and trying to get it rectified through the proper channels. A lot of section 8 renters go straight to their case workers with issues like this and it becomes a lot bigger deal than it needs to be.

    Just do the treatment, cover up the holes, and move on.

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  • Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
    7y

    I live in a new 4,000sq.ft. home and have had a mouse in my house. I've had dozens of them in my garage. My solution: mouse traps! 

    Yes, it's actually possible to control mice by acting like an adult and dealing with them. Your tenant is experiencing life on earth and it shouldn't be a shock that the corners of the world are not all rounded and soft and warm to the touch. Unless there is an infestation caused by the condition of the home, this is a tenant responsibility just like swatting a fly.

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  • Catherine Emert
    Realtor · Bend, OR · Member since 2018 · 323 posts · 224 votes
    7y

    @Patti Robertson I was more thinking if the tenant isn’t removing the trash in a timely manner or has trash on the exterior. I know I’ve seen this personally in some of our rentals over the years.

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  • Jason D.
    Rental Property Investor · St. Petersburg, FL · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y

    @Rita Medeiros I would pay to have the place inspected, and if theres a problem, I would solve it. If it's one dead mouse and nothing else, throw it in the garbage and call it a day. It's cold outside and mice are looking for warm places to live. You may need to do a little work to close up some access points, but I doubt this is a huge undertaking. Another thing to consider... if there are mice, and they start chewing through electrical, that becomes your problem. A lot of landlords forget this fact, that this is YOUR property. You own the place and should take care of it like you own it.

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  • Marcia Maynard
    Investor · Vancouver, WA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y

    I would inspect the property myself. It's not difficult to do exclusion work... learn how and do it yourself. It's not difficult to set traps... set some traps and teach the tenant how to set traps too.

    The fact that the tenant is Section 8 is immaterial. You need to do what you can to keep ALL of your places pest free and teach your tenants their role in the process as well. 

    Key: cleanliness, keeping food contained and not leaving pet food out, exclusion (blocking holes where rodents can enter), keeping vegetation away from the building.

    If it becomes a serious problem or infestation, then call in the pros.

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  • Account Closed
    Lender · Pensacola, FL · Member since 2017 · 658 posts · 626 votes
    7y

    Besides a mouse trap, another effective way to deal with mice is a cat (if the tenant wants one and the lease allows it).

    I grew up on a family dairy farm and the barn had grain, which attracted mice. Some of these mice found their way into the house. One year, one of the barn cats found its way into the cellar to sleep on the warm furnace ducts (we lived in snow country). The smell of cat permeated the house and my mother said we had no mice in the house that year.

    Does the fact this mouse was found dead make a difference? It must have been alive when it got into the house, but what caused it to die? Disease? Starvation? Old age? I'm not sure it really matters because the mouse should not have been there in the first place. But I'm surprise it was found dead.

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  • Dennis M.
    Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 6k+ posts · 9k+ votes
    7y

    my section 8 tenant complained about mice so I bought her a pack of 2$ mouse traps . I really don’t have time to baby sit adults .

    1Reply
  • Josh Dane
    Rental Property Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 100 posts · 85 votes
    7y

    @Rita Medeiros close all holes, make sure there is no rat poop in the house, and you should be set. I would personally have some traps and poison around perimeter of house depending on severity.

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  • Bill H Reed
    Member since 2019 · 1 post · 0 votes
    3y

    Have a question regarding this topic..I have several mobile homes in Tennessee and there's a large pasture behind them which has a lot of field mice and they have a tendency to get in the house there's no way to stop this.. You can keep it under control a little by keeping the grass constantly cut and nothing laying around the house on the ground.. How would section 8 view this?

    thanks

    Bill

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  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    3y
    Quote from @Bill H Reed:

    Have a question regarding this topic..I have several mobile homes in Tennessee and there's a large pasture behind them which has a lot of field mice and they have a tendency to get in the house there's no way to stop this.. You can keep it under control a little by keeping the grass constantly cut and nothing laying around the house on the ground.. How would section 8 view this?

    thanks

    Bill


     In theory there shouldn't be any entry points in the house for mice to get in, ie you could live next door to a mouse breeding farm and there shouldn't be any inside your house. It can be difficult and time consuming to find every possible entry point but Section 8 is going to tell you that it's your responsibility to eliminate entry points. 

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  • Evadne Hollie
    Member since 2023 · 4 posts · 0 votes
    3y

    Whomever owns the property, it should most definitely be landlord, owner, property management. Lack of care could end up being a much bigger issue. Wires chewed, tenant gets electrocuted then it's now a wrongful death, and whomever being sued. All you managers, owners, etc need to think of the end game. Y'all losing all of your properties because you don't want to be a DECENT HUMAN BEING?!?! 

    Would you rather spend a half an hour on a phone call, and under $200 to fix a small issue now, or the other end you people being slum lords and not handling YOUR responsibilities in owning, renting properties???? Those buildings won't maintenance themselves, nor should the tenants be responsible for your upkeep!!!! Your property, YOUR PROBLEM!!!

    Would you have your daughter or son living with rodents, roaches, etc???

    HELL NO!! You wouldn't!!! So don't have someone else's son or daughter in your rat/roach hole of a place (hint,hint like where I currently and unfortunately reside!!! 1 more months!!) Then I'm OUT!!!!

    HORRIBLE PLACE!!!

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  • Evadne Hollie
    Member since 2023 · 4 posts · 0 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Evadne Hollie:

    Whomever owns the property, it should most definitely be landlord, owner, property management. Lack of care could end up being a much bigger issue. Wires chewed, tenant gets electrocuted, or a fire then it's now a wrongful death, and whomever being sued. All you managers, owners, etc need to think of the end game. Y'all losing all of your properties because you don't want to be a DECENT HUMAN BEING?!?! 

    Would you rather spend a half an hour on a phone call, and under $200 to fix a small issue now, or the other end you people being slum lords and not handling YOUR responsibilities in owning, renting properties???? Those buildings won't maintenance themselves, nor should the tenants be responsible for your upkeep!!!! Your property, YOUR PROBLEM!!!

    Would you have your daughter or son living with rodents, roaches, etc???

    HELL NO!! You wouldn't!!! So don't have someone else's son or daughter in your rat/roach hole of a place (hint,hint like where I currently and unfortunately reside!!! 1 more months!!) Then I'm OUT!!!!

    HORRIBLE PLACE!!!

    So supposedly section 8 per a property owner would have you stuffing wool in any and all holes of a rented property, I wonder what HUD would have to say?


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  • Michael SmytheBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Metro Detroit · Member since 2023 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    3y

    Recommend:

    1) Letting the tenant know they need to buy traps and use them.

    2) Waiting until S8 gets involved. They typically give you 30 days to cure nonemergency issues. Make sure you already have an exterminator to call though.

    Also, our lease states that tenant only has 30 days from MoveIn to report pests of any kind. After that, it is on them. This implies they are probably the cause of the issue.

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  • Evadne Hollie
    Member since 2023 · 4 posts · 0 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Evadne Hollie:
    Quote from @Evadne Hollie:

    Whomever owns the property, it should most definitely be landlord, owner, property management. Lack of care could end up being a much bigger issue. Wires chewed, tenant gets electrocuted, or a fire then it's now a wrongful death, and whomever being sued. All you managers, owners, etc need to think of the end game. Y'all losing all of your properties because you don't want to be a DECENT HUMAN BEING?!?! 

    Would you rather spend a half an hour on a phone call, and under $200 to fix a small issue now, or the other end you people being slum lords and not handling YOUR responsibilities in owning, renting properties???? Those buildings won't maintenance themselves, nor should the tenants be responsible for your upkeep!!!! Your property, YOUR PROBLEM!!!

    Would you have your daughter or son living with rodents, roaches, etc???

    HELL NO!! You wouldn't!!! So don't have someone else's son or daughter in your rat/roach hole of a place (hint,hint like where I currently and unfortunately reside!!! 1 more months!!) Then I'm OUT!!!!

    HORRIBLE PLACE!!!

    So supposedly section 8 per a property owner would have you stuffing wool in any and all holes of a rented property, I wonder what HUD would have to say?



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  • Evadne Hollie
    Member since 2023 · 4 posts · 0 votes
    3y

    Well future ref for those of us who have NEVER had to reside with pests before, prior to this messi wouldn't have known what to look for, and when the people who live around you, and have lived here prior to my moving ng in. They've said, yes there are mice. So that tells me if people residing here PRIOR to MY move in says there's mice. Hmmmmmmmm but no concern on count down to get far away from this unlovely, and un- cared for place. Have to thank God, now I know what to look for in a place I sure as hell won't be renting!!

    Section 8 = shouldn't equal having to live with vermin, etc. But most of y'all don't care, just want the $. 

    Yall will get away with that crap on this earth, least y'all not forget the ultimate authority NO ONE can escape from, my opinion but I kinda think he'd frown on that behavior. Just think, if that was YOUR child, living with vermin. Would your attitude be so cavalier? I'd say, probably not.

    Just trying to have you people act like you all have SOME kind of common sense/decency!! Even though sadly I know y'all don't!! 

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  • Ann Hamil
    Member since 2024 · 1 post · 0 votes
    1y

    The holes that she is requesting to have filled in or how the mice got in. Mice are filthy and when their fecal matter dries up it becomes airborne because it's powder and it's full of diseases and it's hard to see visually when it dries up. Less than 48 hours for mouse droppings to dry. Nobody would want to have mice in their home. Regardless of what walk of life they are from. If it's my responsibility I take care of it and quick. I truly believe that how I run my properties and take care of my tenants is a direct reflection of my character and work ethic.  I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that I had people in my properties that had mice or bed bugs or cockroaches.  It is definitely your responsibility to take care of that.  

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