Does a landlord have to provide pest control service?

Does a landlord have to provide bug extermination service? Must a landlord spray for bugs Who is responsible for pest control, the landlord or the tenant? Watch as Attorney Tom Olsen answers this question and more! 

John: Yes, Mr. Olsen. I have a residential property that I rent to somebody. When I gave it to her, it was clean and no bugs, no cockroaches, and after a few months, the house is full of cockroaches.

Attorney Tom Olsen: All right.

John: Who is responsible to exterminate or to kill those cockroaches inside that house? Is it tenant or the landlord?

Attorney Tom Olsen: John, I think -- now I’ve asked Rob Solomon, he’s our landlord-tenant guy, and I know that I’ve asked him this question before and I’m not quite sure what the result of it is, but I think, John, it goes down like this, that if you have a written lease and in that written lease, it says that the tenant is responsible for exterminating roaches and bugs, then it can be the tenant’s responsibility. If you don’t have a lease or your lease does not talk about this issue, about extermination, then it falls on the landlord, John.  I think that’s the way it goes down. Now, Rob Solomon is our landlord-tenant attorney. John, if this is important to you, you are welcome to call Rob at our office next week and Rob, like all the lawyers in our office, he’s happy to give you a few minutes of free legal advice right over the telephone, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, you can reach Rob and all the lawyers in our office at 407-423-5561.