Tenant Left Home Covered in Roaches - when can i re-rent?

[Tiffany Roberts]

We recently had a long term tenant move out of one of our single family homes and she left it absolutely covered in roaches- like falling out of the ceiling covered. I know our property management was NOT good on this one  we should have been checking on the house but she was there for so long and didn't used to be disguising so we fell out of checking on her. Lesson learned.   

Anyway, we are getting professionals involved BUT they say they can't just "bomb" the house (it's illegal in Michigan??) and it will require multiple trips and could take months or longer to eliminate this issue. So do I just have to sit on this house being empty while I wait to get rid of the roaches? Morally, I cannot rent to someone if I know the house has bugs. Has anyone been in this situation? What did you do?

[Randall Alan]

Quote from @Tiffany Roberts:

We recently had a long term tenant move out of one of our single family homes and she left it absolutely covered in roaches- like falling out of the ceiling covered. I know our property management was NOT good on this one  we should have been checking on the house but she was there for so long and didn't used to be disguising so we fell out of checking on her. Lesson learned.   

Anyway, we are getting professionals involved BUT they say they can't just "bomb" the house (it's illegal in Michigan??) and it will require multiple trips and could take months or longer to eliminate this issue. So do I just have to sit on this house being empty while I wait to get rid of the roaches? Morally, I cannot rent to someone if I know the house has bugs. Has anyone been in this situation? What did you do?

@Tiffany Roberts

Generally speaking, roaches are not that difficult to get rid of.  Even the smaller German ones can be eradicated in a few trips across a couple of weeks.  We have a lot of units, and have had some pretty serious infestations.  It has never taken longer than a month to cure any of them… and our pest control people don’t “bomb” the units… they are usually spraying the crevices, or baiting the German ones.  

If you aren’t getting good results with your current pest control, I would see about switching to a different one. It shouldn’t be a months long process… usually several weeks from all that I have experienced. 

All the best!

Randy