Is a Landlord Responsible for Pest Control in New York? What the Law Requires of Apartment Owners and Property Managers on Long Island, in Queens, and in the Bronx (2026)

Yes, in nearly every case. Real Property Law 235-b, the warranty of habitability, is part of every residential lease in New York whether it is written in or not, and it requires the landlord to keep the apartment and the shared common areas fit for human habitation and free of any condition that is dangerous, hazardous, or detrimental to the tenant's life, health, or safety. A roach or mouse problem is that condition.

I have been treating apartment buildings on Long Island for thirty five plus years, and the first thing I tell a new property manager is that the argument about whose fault it is usually costs more than the treatment. The statute is short. The landlord warrants the premises are habitable. The tenant cannot sign that away, because the law says any agreement to waive it is void as against public policy. If a tenant withholds rent over roaches and you end up in front of a judge, the judge is reading 235-b.

Long Island buildings have a second layer. The Multiple Residence Law covers cities under 325,000 people and every town and village in the state, which is all of Nassau and Suffolk, and it applies to any dwelling occupied by three or more families living independently. Section 174 of that law says the owner must keep the whole building and the lot in good repair and clean, and specifically free of pests and rodents, along with dirt, garbage, and anything else that could endanger life or health. That is not a tenant-complaint standard. It is a standing duty on the owner.

New York City has its own version in Multiple Dwelling Law 80, which requires the owner to keep the building, the yards, courts, and passages "clean and free from vermin," and in the Housing Maintenance Code, which I get to below. The short version for a manager with buildings in Massapequa and Jackson Heights: the duty is yours in both places, and the City adds paperwork.

apartment and property manager pest control

Then the owner is not the one in breach, but only if the owner can show it. Real Property Law 235-b carves out conditions caused by the tenant's misconduct, and Multiple Residence Law 174 lets a tenant be held responsible for a violation that results from their own wilful act, assistance, or negligence. Without an inspection record from before the complaint, that exception is a theory.

Here is how it plays out. A tenant in a 24 unit building calls about roaches. The unit is a mess, there is food on the floor, and the roaches are obviously being fed. The manager says it is the tenant's problem. The tenant says the roaches came through the wall from the vacant unit next door. Now who is right? If the building has a program with a visit sheet from last month showing zero activity on the monitors in that hallway and the adjacent units, the manager has a case. If the last pest visit was "whenever someone complained," the manager has nothing, and the roaches are in the shared wall by now anyway.

The practical rule we give managers is to treat first and argue second. German cockroaches do not respect the lease line. The egg case produces 30 to 40 nymphs, and a female carries it until it is nearly ready to hatch, so by the time the complaint comes in there are already three apartments involved. Treat the stack, document the condition of the unit with photos and the visit sheet, and bill back under the lease if the record supports it. The building stays clean and the file stays clean.

Four things. Local Law 55 of 2018 requires owners to investigate every occupied unit and the common areas for pests at least once a year, to use integrated pest management, and to have any pesticide applied by a DEC licensed pest professional. Roach, mouse, and rat violations are immediately hazardous with 21 days to correct. And owners of multiple dwellings must file an annual bedbug report with HPD each December.

None of that applies to a building in Hempstead or Huntington. Nassau and Suffolk run on the State Sanitary Code, the Multiple Residence Law, and the warranty of habitability, enforced by the town building department and the county health department when a complaint comes in. A manager with a portfolio that crosses the city line needs one program that satisfies the stricter set, because the inspection in Queens is the one that comes with a calendar and a fine.

No. Under Environmental Conservation Law 33-0905, a person may generally apply pesticides only in the dwelling unit where they live unless they are a certified commercial applicator, and the State Department of Health's guide for landlords says pesticide applications should not be done in an occupied unit by an unlicensed landlord. In Queens and the Bronx, Local Law 55 says it outright: licensed professional only.

The super can do a great deal that is not spraying. He can set sticky monitors, seal the gap under the boiler room door, fit the door sweeps, pull the trash room apart and hose it, and walk the units with a flashlight. That work is most of integrated pest management, and it is what the City's own rules describe. What he should not do is buy a case of aerosol at the supply house and fog the hallways. The products are pyrethroids, which repel German cockroaches instead of killing the colony, so the roaches move from the hallway into the units. He has made the problem worse, created a chemical exposure issue in a building full of kids, and done it without a license.

Tenants are on a shorter leash. The State guide says a tenant may use a general use pesticide in their own living space but may not apply anything in common areas like hallways, doorways, or stairwells. That is worth putting in the lease rider, because the number of tenants who fog their own apartment and push the roaches into the neighbor's is not small.

licensed applicator

Because the population is not in one apartment. German cockroaches move through shared walls, pipe chases, and the voids behind kitchens and bathrooms, and mice travel the whole building through a gap the width of a pencil. Treat the unit that complained and the roaches in the three units around it keep breeding and move back in within weeks.

The numbers explain it. One egg case is 30 to 40 nymphs. A nymph is a breeding adult in about 50 to 60 days at normal indoor temperature, faster in a warm building. Roaches spend about 75 percent of their lives inside cracks 1/32 to 3/16 of an inch wide, which in an apartment building means the plumbing wall between two kitchens, the gap around the radiator pipe, and the void under the cabinet base. When we treat 4B and skip 4A, 4C, and 3B, we have treated the lobby of the colony and left the bedrooms.

Mice are the same story with different anatomy. The CDC puts the gap a mouse needs at 1/4 inch, the width of a pencil. In a garden apartment complex that is the gap where the gas line enters, the space under the utility room door, and the bottom corner of every exterior door with a worn sweep. A tenant's complaint about mice in the kitchen is a building complaint. The traps go in the unit, but the exclusion work and the exterior bait stations go on the building, or the next tenant calls next month.

unit-by-unit treatment fails in multifamily buildings / mouse or rat

Scheduled service of the common areas, trash rooms, boiler rooms, and exterior on a monthly or every-other-week cadence, unit treatments when a tenant reports activity, a turnover treatment on every vacant unit before the next tenant moves in, exterior rodent stations where the building needs them, and a written record after every visit that the manager keeps on file.

1. The baseline walk. On the first visit we walk every common area, the compactor or trash room, the boiler room, the laundry, the basement, and the exterior perimeter, set monitors, and give the manager a written map of what we found.
2. Scheduled common area service. Monthly for most buildings, every other week for buildings with active pressure or a history. Trash rooms, chases, and mechanical rooms get treated on the schedule whether or not anyone complained.
3. Unit response. When a tenant reports activity, we schedule with the tenant, send prep instructions ahead, and treat the unit and the adjacent units on the same stack. The visit sheet records the condition of the unit for the manager's file.
4. Turnover treatment. Every vacant unit gets inspected and treated before the new tenant's keys are cut. This is the single visit that prevents the most complaints, because the new tenant never meets the old tenant's roaches.
5. Exterior rodent stations. Tamper-resistant stations along the foundation and by the dumpsters where the building calls for them, checked and logged on every visit.
6. Exclusion recommendations. Door sweeps, pipe penetrations, and vent screens get written up with photos for the super. We do not do exclusion construction work, but the list tells the super exactly what to close.
7. The record. A visit sheet after every visit: date, areas, monitor counts, products and placements, and recommendations. New York requires commercial applicators to keep application records for at least three years under ECL 33-1205. The manager gets a copy every time.

The program covers roaches, mice, rats, ants, pantry pests, wasps on the building, and more. One schedule, one point of contact for every building in the portfolio, visits Monday through Sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. scheduled around the tenants.

In Queens and the Bronx, a cockroach, mouse, or rat violation issued by HPD is immediately hazardous and must be corrected within 21 days, with a sworn certification due five days after that. On Long Island there is no statutory day count, but the warranty of habitability runs from the day the condition exists, and a tenant who complains in writing and gets nothing has the rent abatement argument from that date.

The 21 days is the outside limit, not the target. A judge in Hempstead or Islip who sees a written complaint dated the first of the month and a first treatment on the twenty-eighth is going to ask what the owner was doing for four weeks. Our program standard for buildings under contract is a unit visit scheduled within two business days of the manager's call and same-day response for anything the manager flags as urgent. That is a service commitment, not a legal one, but it is the kind of record that ends the conversation in court.

The other reason to move fast is biology. Every week of delay on a roach complaint is another round of egg cases hatching in the shared wall. Every week of delay on mice in October is another litter. The cheapest treatment any building ever gets is the one that happens the week the first tenant calls.

A written visit record every time, one point of contact for the whole portfolio, service scheduled around tenants rather than around the technician, turnover treatments as a standing line item, coverage for any pest that shows up and not just roaches, a DEC certified applicator on every job, and a written guarantee. If a company cannot show you a sample visit sheet, keep looking.

Managers tell me the thing they want most is to stop thinking about it. That means a company that answers the phone, shows up when the tenant is told it will, and sends the paperwork without being asked. We treat buildings in Nassau and Suffolk, Queens, and the Bronx, so a manager with a mixed portfolio has one vendor and one record format that satisfies the City's rules and covers the Long Island buildings at the same time.

What sets the price is the number of units, the number of buildings and how spread out they are, the condition on the baseline walk, how many exterior stations the property needs, and the visit frequency. Every quote is written. The baseline walk tells us the number, and the number is the same every month, which is what a manager needs for a budget.

If you are reading this because a tenant just texted you a photo of a roach on the stove, that is the right time to call. We will walk the building, give you the written plan, and get the first visit on the calendar.

commercial pest control / German cockroach / mice exterminator