Is the renter bugging the landlord too much?

[Jane Moon]

We are new (to this property) renters (and looking to become landlords at some point in the future hopefully) and have moved into an older house. We love the house and have been taking good care of it, as the last tenants didn't seem to really care about the property--nor did they want to talk to the landlord about issues, so let things go to the wayside unless it was unavoidable (like a garbage disposal breaking? This was according to them and our landlord.) 

Since we are pretty astute about what's going on in the house and after doing a deep clean moving in, we noticed some issues that unfortunately turned out to be larger issues. The toilet was draining water quickly, so we notified the landlord and it turns out there was a major plumbing issue in the house. We noticed the lights flickering in a few rooms and then it was discovered that many of the light fixtures were wired incorrectly during a renovation years ago. Our landlord has been great about fixing these things and we've felt bad that pointing out what we thought was minor issues turned into bigger ones. We offered to help pay a portion of the repairs but she refused. 

Yesterday, we've noticed mice going in and out of the garage shed and into a hole in the foundation of the house. We suspect they're nesting up in the crawlspace under the house. We found a lot of mice poop in the garage shed. We laid down traps and haven't seen any inside, and have sealed up our food to be precautious. We plan on letting our landlord know, but we are not sure if we are just bugging them at this point. We try to fix little things on our own but this doesn't seem so little. It just seems like horrible timing because the landlord just fixed the wiring in the house, and now we've noticed the mice. The lease isn't clear on pest issues, so we're wondering if this is something we should continue to try and take care of--or do we let our landlord know? 

While we pay rent on time and generally try and be considerate, I don't want to get on a landlord's bad side by noticing/notifying these issues. it just feels like a lot has happened in the past couple of months of us living here. Since we are hoping to be landlords in the future too, it would be nice to know what would be a good gauge of reasonable tenant asks too. Thanks!

[Bryan Devitt]

You are being great tenants so far. What happens if you try to take care of the mice issue yourself and it gets worse? Maybe they could hire a professional to take care of it for $100 right now but you try to take care of it and in a month or two it gets worse, you let them know and find out the mice ate wiring, pex pipes, etc and now it will cost thousands? Annoying is "I feel a slight draft from this window when there is a southernly wind on Tuesday nights". These are all legitimate concerns. Tell them what is going on with the mice, tell them what you're doing and that it isn't an issue yet. That way they have the option to address it if they want to.