Rats and Mice in a Rental: Tenant and Landlord Rules in Richmond

Short answer: in a Richmond rental, the landlord must keep the premises fit and habitable and comply with housing codes that affect health and safety. The tenant must keep their part of the unit free of insects and pests and promptly tell the landlord when pests show up. Rodents count as pests under Virginia law. If a tenant gives written notice and the landlord does not fix a rodent infestation, Virginia law gives the tenant options, including asking a general district court for rent escrow.

This guide walks through the parts of the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (VRLTA) that matter for rats and mice, how notice works, what each side typically pays for and where Richmond's property maintenance code fits in.

This is general information, not legal advice. Leases, facts and the law can change the answer. Read the statutes linked below, and talk to a lawyer or a legal aid organization before taking legal action.

What the landlord must do

Virginia Code section 55.1-1220 lists the landlord's duties to maintain the premises. The ones that matter most for rodents are:

• Comply with applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety.
• Make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition.
• Keep common areas shared by two or more units of a multifamily building in a clean and structurally safe condition.
• Maintain electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems in good and safe working order.
• Provide and maintain appropriate receptacles for garbage and other waste, and arrange for its removal.

In practical terms, repairs that keep rodents out of the building usually fall on the landlord: broken crawl space vents, gaps in the foundation, damaged doors, holes around pipes and problems in shared spaces like basements, hallways and trash areas. The statute also says the landlord is liable only for the tenant's actual damages caused by the landlord's failure to exercise ordinary care.

The law allows a landlord and tenant to agree in writing that the tenant will handle certain duties, such as common area cleaning and trash removal, but only in good faith and not to dodge the landlord's obligations.

What the tenant must do

Virginia Code section 55.1-1227 sets the tenant's duties. For rodents, these stand out:

• Keep the part of the unit and premises the tenant occupies and uses as clean and safe as conditions permit.
• Keep that part of the unit free from insects and pests, as defined in Virginia Code section 3.2-3900, and promptly notify the landlord of any insects or pests. Section 3.2-3900 defines a pest to include any vertebrate animal other than man, which covers rats and mice.
• Remove garbage and other waste from the unit in a clean and safe manner, into the receptacles the landlord provides.
• Be financially responsible for the added cost of treatment caused by the tenant's unreasonable delay in reporting insects or pests, and for the cost of treatment when the tenant's fault caused the infestation.

That last point is why prompt, written notice matters for tenants. Reporting the first droppings you find protects you from being charged for a problem that grew while you waited.

How to give notice about rodents

Notice is the hinge for almost everything that follows. A few habits make it count.

• Put it in writing. Email or a dated letter works better than a phone call or a hallway conversation. If the lease names a notice method, use it.
• Be specific: what you saw, where, when it started and any damage, such as chewed food packaging or droppings in a cabinet.
• Attach photos.
• Allow access. The landlord or their pest control provider needs to get into the unit. Under the rent escrow statute, a landlord can defend against a tenant's claim by showing the tenant unreasonably refused entry to fix the problem.
• Keep copies of everything, including the landlord's replies and any pest control visit reports.

Landlords should respond in writing too, schedule service quickly and keep the provider's reports. In multi-unit buildings, treating only the unit that complained often fails, because mice move through shared walls and pipe chases. Our apartment rodent control page explains building-wide plans.

If the landlord does not act

Virginia law gives tenants two main paths when a landlord does not fix a serious problem. Both have specific steps.

Notice of noncompliance and termination

Under section 55.1-1234, if the landlord materially fails to comply with the lease or with the VRLTA in a way that materially affects health and safety, the tenant may serve written notice describing the breach and stating that the lease will end on a date at least 30 days after the landlord receives the notice if the breach is not fixed within 21 days. If the landlord fixes it in time, the lease does not end. The tenant may also recover damages and seek an injunction, and is entitled to reasonable attorney fees unless the landlord proves its actions were reasonable. A tenant cannot terminate over a condition caused by the tenant, an occupant or a guest.

Rent escrow

Under section 55.1-1244, a tenant may file an assertion in the general district court where the property is located, claiming a condition that is a material noncompliance or a serious threat to health and safety. The statute names "an infestation of rodents" as one such condition. Before the court grants relief, the tenant must show that the landlord was served written notice of the condition, or was notified by a violation notice from a state or local agency, and failed to fix it within a reasonable time. The statute presumes that more than 30 days from the landlord's receipt of notice is unreasonable, although a court can decide otherwise. The tenant must also pay the rent due into the court within five days of when it is due.

The landlord can defend by showing the condition does not exist, has been fixed, was caused by the tenant or the tenant's guests, or that the tenant unreasonably refused entry. If the tenant wins, the court can order things like rent held in escrow until repairs are made, rent abatement or money released to pay for repairs. The statute has a version that applies until January 1, 2027 and an updated version after that date; both list an infestation of rodents. Read the current text before filing.

Where Richmond's property maintenance code fits

Separate from the landlord-tenant law, the City of Richmond enforces the Virginia Maintenance Code through its Property Maintenance and Code Enforcement Division. Tenants and neighbors can report code problems through RVA311. After an inspection, the owner gets a notice of violation with time to make repairs. The city notes that in a rental, the tenant may also receive a notice and be held responsible for some corrective actions, such as trash the tenant controls.

A violation notice from a city agency can also satisfy the notice requirement in the rent escrow statute, since the statute accepts notification "by a violation or condemnation notice from an appropriate state or local agency." Our reporting guide explains how to file.

Who usually pays for rodent control

The law sets duties, and the lease often sets who pays. Virginia REALTORS, describing its standard residential lease, says the landlord is responsible for routine preventive pesticide application while the tenant may be charged for added treatment needed to address an infestation. It also notes that the landlord's duty to keep the unit fit and habitable applies even when the tenant caused the problem. That lines up with the statute's split.

Some common situations:

• Mice coming through gaps in the building's foundation or crawl space: a building repair, usually the landlord's to fix.
• Rats feeding on trash the tenant left on a porch: the tenant may be responsible for the added cost.
• A problem reported promptly in writing that grew because the landlord waited months: the landlord's delay, not the tenant's.
• Rodents moving between units in a multi-unit building: a building issue that needs the landlord.

If you are a landlord, ask your provider for written reports with photos of entry points and sealing. They show you acted with ordinary care.

Questions people ask

Related reading

• How to report rats in Richmond
• Apartment and multi-unit rodent control
• Mice in walls removal
• Rodent droppings cleanup