Mice delivered in "new" fridge?

[Jaclyn P.]

Hello fellow BP members.  I have a multi-family house in Rochester, NY that is having a major issue with mice.  It started with one our tenants upstairs mentioning that he was seeing quite a few in his apartment, yet he keeps things clean and doesn't have anything out to encourage them.  When I asked the other tenant on the same floor if they were having an issue, they didn't seem to notice much of anything.  We had someone setup traps around the house in various places, and the problem seemed to be getting better.

Fast forward to the beginning of this month...we had two tenants move out - one on the first floor and one on the second (not the one that first reported the problem).  When we went to the house to do move-out inspections and clean/make repairs, we found that the first floor apartment was LOADED with mouse poop.  Literally every surface of every room, and then some.  Also inside the stove, and in the back of the fridge from what we can see.  We did not see any live mice anywhere in the house when we were cleaning, only dead ones.  I thought maybe the mouse problem had been resolved, and planned to have more traps setup around the house to catch any stragglers that were hiding while we were there.  However, about a week after cleaning, we are seeing more mice than before, running everywhere.  Not sure if it's because their hiding places are gone, or their food (or both), but they most definitely are not gone.

So...a few questions: 1) The first floor tenant claims that the fridge we had delivered last summer to his apartment was loaded with mice from the get go.  I highly doubt this, especially after seeing how dirty the apartment was after he moved out.  Is it possible though that he fridge could have brought the mice into the house?  It was a refurbished fridge from a local appliance center that we've used before.  There was evidence that the mice had gotten into the back of the fridge and chewed through the cardboard piece, but it seems like if any were inside initially, they would not have stayed through the delivery process.

2) If the mice did in fact come with the fridge that I bought, do I have any recourse with the company that sold and delivered it to me?

3) Since I need to get the apartments ready to rent by January first, what is the best way to tackle the mouse problem and make sure they are gone before renting (and showing) to new tenants?

Thanks!