Tenant asking for bug treatment

[Michael Temple]

I received this text this morning from one of my tenants...

"Good Morning, Mike! We have been seeing a TON of spiders and bugs in the house, and were wondering if it would be possible to get it sprayed. Please let me know what you think"

A couple of background facts...

1. I did an inspection on the house 2 weeks ago and found the place very clean and well maintained. I specifically asked if they were seeing any black ants in the house, which sometimes come in during the early spring. (We lived in this house for 15 years). They mentioned nothing. Now, this text only 2 weeks later.

2.  This couple is a little persnickety, they tend to text more than I would expect for what I consider small issues, but the house is a nice house in a great suburb and they are paying a high rent.

3. When we lived in the house it was not uncommon to see spiders and some bugs in the early spring/summer. It wasn't a TON as she says, but like most houses, there were some for sure. I don't know what a "TON" is, but I suspect she is blowing this out of proportion since I didn't see any issues when I inspected.

I would just like some advice on how I should respond and/or handle this. I am not really in favor of sending a pest crew over there for a lot of money when I don't think there is a real infestation here of any kind and what they are experiencing is normal from the time we lived there. However, I also don't want them to think I am simply ignoring them either. I would love some advice on this. Thanks!

[John Underwood]

@Michael Temple Do you have anything in your lease that addresses this?

My lease says that if they find any pests in the first 30 days after they move in I will treat the house. Beyond the first 30 days it is their responsibility.  The reason being you can't control how clean they keep they house and if they leave out food that attracts pests. 

If you don't have this covered in your lease you may want to pay for this and update your lease so you don't get stuck with this bill in the future.

Most of my lease edits are due to learning from the school of hard knocks and making updates to keep problems for me from happening in the future.