Roach fumigation responsibility

[jim20j]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Chicago, IL

Who is responsible for fumigation of roaches?

A tenant moved in a couple months ago and had an inspector come in and stated there were roaches in the apartment and now claims to not pay rent until the apartment is exterminated. The landlord has offered to exterminate at their own expense but the tenant demands a professional like Orkin do it.

There are 4 other occupied units in that 3 flat section of the building. There are tenants above and below them, directly across from them and the tenant across / above.
All have been residing there between 18 months and 5 years. All of those other tenants state they had never had any problems with roaches and only 2 state they never had any until the new tenant moved in, which only leads me to believe the new tenant brought the roaches with.

What direction can a landlord go now?

[FarmerJ]

You have a letter from city inspections about its findings ? if so I would say use a pro before they spread any farther , get rid of them now , other wise it would take a very long time , been thru this before , and as soon as they are gone if they re appear in the same rental unit make the tenant pay for it. then soon as they are eradicated consider spraying - treating units that become vacant with long lasting products to attempt to prevent the spread of them. see if you had caught it with in the first week of tenancy then self treatment several times may have been enough to keep them from spreading out side of this unit . but now they have had ample time to begin to move .

[BL]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Chicago, IL

Who is responsible for fumigation of roaches?

A tenant moved in a couple months ago and had an inspector come in and stated there were roaches in the apartment and now claims to not pay rent until the apartment is exterminated. The landlord has offered to exterminate at their own expense but the tenant demands a professional like Orkin do it.

There are 4 other occupied units in that 3 flat section of the building. There are tenants above and below them, directly across from them and the tenant across / above.
All have been residing there between 18 months and 5 years. All of those other tenants state they had never had any problems with roaches and only 2 state they never had any until the new tenant moved in, which only leads me to believe the new tenant brought the roaches with.

What direction can a landlord go now?

You are responsible .

Hire a professional Co. of your choice .

Give all tenants proper notice that the exterminator will be coming ( meet the exterminator Co. there for entry ) and advise ALL tenants they will have to vacate for a period of time if necessary .

The entire building will need extermination.

[url]http://www.chicityclerk.com/tenantsVRSlandlords.php[/url]

Read tenant remedies

read landlord remedies .

Some exterminators use a product called kill dead or something like that .

It's a crystallized substance they spray and occupants must leave for a bout an hr.

[Gail in Georgia]

Addressing the issue of withholding rent in Chicago:

A tenant does have this option BUT only if they follow some very specific guidelines as outlined in the attached:

[url=http://apartments.uchicago.edu/troubleshooting/rent.html]UChicago Apartment Guide - Troubleshooting[/url]

In other words this CAN be an option if the insect issue is not addressed within 14 days of notifying the landlord/management of the problem. However, the tenant cannot arbitrarily withhold rent without giving the landlord a reasonable (in this case, 2 weeks) amount of time to deal with the roach problem.

Gail

[xylene]

Why would extermination be the responsibility of ANYONE but the landlord.

Prove the tenant intentionally introduced roaches.

Yeah thought so.

[Hot Topic]

Fumigate, and they'll just run into the next apartment until the fumes subside. You need something that will kill the eggs as well as the adults.