Roach infestation & breaking the lease

[neva1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

With the warm air starting in May, the place my GF is renting, turned out to be a roach motel. She moved in this place last November and there were no such problems. Since June, she complained to the management company and was sent out professional exterminating service twice, each time costing her taking a day off and few other nights of shuffling her belongings and washing everything after fumigation.

Now the roaches are getting more brazen and getting into the refrigerator and dying on top of food containers. She resigned from using the kitchen and living on sandwiches and fast food She is getting ready to call them a third time with the same problem but I am quite sure the problem will not get resolved, due to next door neighbor of hers, using his floor as a garbage can replacement. Several hints to the management company about his lifestyle get her nowhere.

I am wondering for how long she has to put up with this fumigation and problem returning back after a couple of weeks ? Is there an equivalent of lemon law when it comes to leases and if yes, how many times you have to report the same problem and having it come back after a short time ?

 

[STEPHAN]

Has she talked to the city?

 

[neva1]

Has she talked to the city?

The property is outside the city limits, in an unincorporated area, surrounded by shops.

 

[FarmerJ]

When a rental is in a rural area like a rural township then if the township does not have a inspections department then go to the county health department! BTW who instructed her to wash things down after its been sprayed ? the idea with sprays is that the coating is supposed to continue to kill the bugs for a period of time after its applied since roaches that did manage to hide will later come back out , track thru the chemical residue and die , if its a spray designed to interrupt the roaches reproduction cycle then again there are ones who hid and would have to pass thru the residue. But if the residue is washed away so is the whole point of spraying. SO again who told her to wash things down after the treatment?

 

[neva1]

When a rental is in a rural area like a rural township then if the township does not have a inspections department then go to the county health department! BTW who instructed her to wash things down after its been sprayed ? the idea with sprays is that the coating is supposed to continue to kill the bugs for a period of time after its applied since roaches that did manage to hide will later come back out , track thru the chemical residue and die , if its a spray designed to interrupt the roaches reproduction cycle then again there are ones who hid and would have to pass thru the residue. But if the residue is washed away so is the whole point of spraying. SO again who told her to wash things down after the treatment?

When I said wash, I didn't mean the floors and walls. I meant she washes all her clothing that was near spraying area (which basically is the whole 300 sqft of the efficiency unit) and her pots and pans and cups and silverware. In the process the sink gets washed as the unit don't have a dishwasher. Otherwise she was explicitly told by the exterminator, not to mop the floors near baseboards for at least a week, which she followed to the "T" in the past two times.

Also, before this unit can be declared as something like heath hazard, does she have to go thru the county health department ? If so, what authority or person does she need to talk to ?

 

[Ohiogal]

How is she contributing to the roach problem?