Is the landlord or the tenant responsible for pest control in a single family rental?
Who can be held responsible for pest control in a rental unit depends upon applicable state and local laws and terms of the lease agreement. You should research your state statutes and local ordinances regarding what maintenance and repair responsibilities can and cannot be transferred to tenants. A single family rental property may have different regulations than does a unit in a multi-family property.
In general, many states hold the landlord legally responsible for health, safety, maintenance, and repair issues. A landlord has a duty of care responsibility to protect people and property. A pest infestation causes serious health issues for tenants as well as property damage if the infestation is not quickly identified and treated appropriately.
A landlord, by trying to transfer responsibility for health, safety, or maintenance and repair issues to a tenant, even when the responsibility is specifically addressed in the lease agreement, could create liability if the tenant objected to the lease terms and conditions and filed legal action against the landlord. In almost all states, the landlord is held responsible by the legal doctrine of the implied warranty of habitability to offer and maintain leased premises in a safe and sanitary condition fit for human habitation for the duration of the lease. Landlord inspections of the rental premise for health and safety reasons cannot be waived.
In some states, responsibility for pest control and many other maintenance items can be transferred to the tenant of a single-family residence as long as specifically addressed by the lease agreement and detailed in tenant duties and responsibilities. However, the landlord must be sure that anything transferred to the tenant was in good working order when the tenant moved in. In the case of pest control, this can be difficult to determine as existing pests may not be obvious at the beginning of a tenancy. Pest problems can depend on the season, environmental factors such as weather conditions or excessive moisture, location of the rental unit, physical condition of the structure, and general housekeeping practices. The landlord would gain some defense against tenant claims of pest infestation at move-in by a practice of having a professional pest control company inspect the property and perform necessary extermination and/or preventive treatments before a new tenant moves in.
A consideration against transferring pest control responsibility to the tenant is whether the tenant will satisfactorily perform according to the lease terms and conditions regarding pest control. A landlord must be very specific in his instructions for pest control duties and responsibilities – that is, whether professional pest control services must be used, landlord notification of inspection, authorizations required for treatment, documentation of services and treatment, copy of paid invoice , etc. Documentation of inspections and treatments should be required by the landlord and may be needed for landlord compliance with health and safety responsibilities by housing codes, and legal disclosure requirements.