It doesn’t matter where you buy your investment property or what type it is. Unfortunately bugs and other pests look to make it their home too.
When bugs and other pests find their way into your investment property, they can quickly cause havoc. The landlord and tenant can often enter into conflicting conversations. Who is responsible to rectify the problem? At whose expense?
Who is responsible for pest control?
Taking note of the Rental Tenancies Act 1997, it states that ‘the tenant must take reasonable care of the premises and keep the premises reasonably clean’.
As pest problems often occur with uncleanliness including tenants not removing rubbish correctly or from their pets hygiene the responsibility could generally falls upon the tenant.
The landlord is firstly responsible to ensure the property is reasonably clean, in working order and habitable for a tenant. If a tenant maintains good cleanliness, then pest control problems can be redirected to the landlord for rectification.
It’s important to note it’s the timeline of events leading to the discovery of the pest control issue that will pin point who will be ultimately responsible.
Tribunals such as VCAT, have found that if a tenant reported a pest control problem early into their lease, the landlord would be required to fix it. Prompt communication and proof by the tenant would provide a big case that the landlord would need to take care of the problem.
Can a Lease Agreement make this clearer?
The responsibility can be dictated by the lease agreement. You can clearly state the responsibilities within the lease agreement, but it’s essentially that its signed off. If this is omitted, then the responsibility will generally fall towards the tenants as previously mentioned.
Please note pests include, ants, bees/wasps, cockroaches, fleas, spiders, termites and even rats/mice and snakes/possums to name a few.
While we have taken care to ensure the information above is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances and legislation after the displayed date may impact the accuracy of this article. If you want to learn more please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to assist you.
March 2019
