Pest Control:Tenants responsibility or not?

Question

How do you handle this with a rental?  Do you require your tenant to be responsible?  If you do, how do you enforce it?  If you don't have them be responsible and hire out, how much can a landlord expect to pay?  If you DIY, what do you use?

(I just had a tenant move out and it is infested with roaches!  It was in her lease to take care of it and I did inspections, but didn't see any signs.)

John Underwood · Answer

My lease says I will handle any pest problems for first 30 days after they move in, after that it is their responsibility.

If they move out and you have a pest problem, document it and take it out of their deposit.

Lynn McGeein · Answer

If this is a single family detached rental, we also will treat within first 30 days; otherwise, it is in lease they are responsible.  For townhouse, we will treat with the whole-house pest spray before move in, then leave a bottle of that, plus Ant traps & hornet spray with the home.  For the rare tenant who still complains, if we think it is a good, long-term tenant with a clean house so likely the neighbors causing the issue, we'll just hire a service and set up auto-pay quarterly as long as tenant agrees to schedule quarterly treatments without missing them.  Bonus for that is that any time they see a bug, company will come out and treat again, no matter when, and we never have to get a call as tenant can call them  directly, no extra charge to us.  But we have found once we use that whole house pest spray, most never complain.  For those where it appears they are causing the issue -- greasy kitchen, cluttered closets and garage, etc., we definitely let them know it's their responsibility if they are providing conditions that attract them.

Percy Matsunaga · Answer

@Jonathan Cronkhite

I had a condo with tenant that complained about roaches. what I did was hire a pest control to evaluate the situation and leave the documentation with the tenant. I paid for the initial treatment until it was a non issue. what I learned from this was some tenants who deal directly with the owners are trying to find ways for a discounted rent in my case. this quickly turned into a situation that I needed to evict my tenant as it came to a point he started not to pay his rent.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

My lease agreement says the tenant was given the opportunity to inspect the rental and it is believed to be pest free. We will correct any problems found within the first seven days because we can't catch everything. After that, pest control is a tenant responsibility.

Document it with pictures and/or video. Have it professionally treated. Charge the tenant's deposit.

Pest Control:Tenants responsibility or not?

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