Pest control....do you do it or do your tenants?

Question

Hey BP....

Wanted to find out if you cover general pest control or if you word your lease for tenants to do that..thanks.

Account Closed · Answer

I think it's best for the LL to do it, because it protects your investment, and you could be on the hook for habitability issues if the tenant wants to claim you are running a slum, etc.

In CA anyway, if you hire a pest control service that you pay every month, they come and spray every month and they will also handle any infestations that happen without any extra fee.   For instance, in CA when it starts to rain, you will often be invaded by these tiny ants we call cement ants - they usually live under sidewalks or cement porches, and when their ant condos get flooded, they invade your home.  With the monthly pest control service contract, they would come deal with the ant invasion for no extra charge.

Account Closed · Answer

Tenant keeps the place clean and you confirm with quarterly inspections. That reduces possibility of interior pests. Landlord responsible for exterior pest control.

Rich Baer · Answer

@Christine Mwai

Once the tenant complains, I buy a year service agreement with a local pest company. It allows for the tenant to call the pest company directly for unlimited treatments. It has been a method that works great for me.

Gail K. · Answer

The issue may be that the OP lives in Alabama and, like Georgia, it often does not get cold enough in the winter to knock down certain pests such as Palmetto bugs (what a lovely description of large, flying roaches that my mother once mistook for a mouse).

As others have pointed out, I tell new tenants that I have sprayed the exterior (we have SFH) and bombed/sprayed the interior of the rental units prior to anyone moving in.   After that, it is up to the tenant to keep the place clean to avoid issues such as german roaches but to realize that palmetto bugs may still be able to enter (they are often drawn to water during very hot, dry spells).  If mice become an issue (so far only in one house) we will set traps and seal possible openings.

I once had a tenant who moved from New Jersey who, I learned (AFTER the lease signing of course) had very bad OCD and was terrified to the grasshoppers outside.  I told her there really was nothing I could do about grasshoppers on her lawn but cutting the lawn would be a good job for her teenage son.

Gail

Kevin Farrell · Answer

I own a pest control business in Indianapolis. My opinion is the landlord should take care of the pest control. When you allow a tenant to live with roaches or BB because they won't or can't pay for Pest Control, you get the problem to deal with when they are gone. By that time, the surrounding units are also infested to some degree. When your building starts to have these problems word travels fast and the good people leave first. Michael Stanton and Sue Kelly both mentioned inspections and I strongly agree. We offer quarterly inspections with perimeter spray inside. This gives us good control and we get to see a problem before it gets out of hand. Plus, we can price the service to include treatment of all pests (including BB) for one monthly fee.

Contact me for more information on what we do here and tips on hiring a pest conrol company for your property.

Christine Mwai · Answer

Thank you all....Great points...BP is an awesome forum! This is what I did today...I called the specific tenant...(they are a great young couple with 2 dogs and live 4 doors up from me).....I've rented to them for 1.8 years. .And I did do the pest control when they first moved in...coz I had a contract for my home too. It was a courtesy. This is a nice neighborhood... I used Home defense from  home Depot on my home.....I will buy them the same...it's 4 houses down from me...if it works for me, it should work for them.?...we all agreed on that, very nicely. ...so I will drop it off tomorrow. ..I offered to spray ....but the wife said, "no, Ms Christine. ..he (hubby) can do it." ..

Freddie Blanton · Answer

I include pest control in my rentals.  Most renters seem to expect it and I like the fact that I have another body in the rental once a quarter.

Don Souza · Answer

I'm a CA landlord and cover it, working it into my overall expenses in determining rent cost.

John Patton · Answer

I use Bengal Bug Spray. I buy it and spray myself inside the home. Close on house Thursday 1 pm and sprayed at 4 pm. Next day I found about 50 dead thinks. I have been using it for 7 years and it works. It costs $15 a can at walmart, depot and lowes and its worth it. Good luck.

I do keep pets away for 24 hours. Good luck. JP

Denise Evans · Answer

@Christine Mwai, you should handle pest control yourself but have a clause in your lease that says for roaches and ants, you treat only once a month. If there is a problem between treatments, it is usually tenant caused because of housekeeping. Handling pest control yourself ensures that it actually gets done, plus it gives you a reason to be inside the property once a month. You must have a regular schedule for treatments, such as "between the hours of 10am and 4pm on the second Tuesday of each month."  You MUST also have a separate agreement with the tenant allowing entry according to that schedule. It cannot be part of your regular lease agreement, or it will be unenforceable.  If it is unenforceable, then you will need to give the tenant at least two days notice before every entry, and try to get their consent, which the tenant is not allowed to "unreasonably" withhold. But, if they don't answer your emails or vmails or text messages, then it's a sticky problem about whether you can enter or not. The separate agreement, and the schedule, avoids all of that mess.

Pest control....do you do it or do your tenants?

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