Yes. A landlord can arrange professional pest control at a let property, and in most situations they are the party legally expected to do it. Where an infestation comes from the condition of the building, responsibility sits with the landlord under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which covers the structure and exterior, and under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which requires a rented home to be fit to live in at the start of a tenancy and to remain so throughout. Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse is also one of the twenty nine hazards councils assess under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, so a serious infestation can attract enforcement from environmental health rather than staying a private matter between landlord and tenant.
Three practical things decide how it works day to day. The landlord needs lawful access, which means at least twenty four hours written notice and a visit at a reasonable time rather than arriving unannounced with a technician. Payment depends on the cause of the infestation rather than on who reported it. And there are real limits on what a landlord may apply themselves, because the products a professional uses are not sold to the general public and their label conditions carry legal force. Everything below covers those three points and where the line falls when a tenant has caused the problem.
Where responsibility usually sits
Mice entering through a gap at damp proof course level, rats from a fractured drain, wasps in a soffit, silverfish thriving on persistent damp. All of these trace back to the fabric of the building, which makes them the landlord’s to resolve, and a tenancy agreement cannot sign that duty away. Section 11 obligations are implied into the tenancy by statute and cannot be contracted out of.
Councils also hold separate powers. Under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 an authority can require an owner to deal with rats or mice on their land, and occupiers have a duty to report substantial infestations. In practice a landlord who ignores a tenant’s reports will often hear from the local authority before they hear from a solicitor.
The repair matters as much as the treatment. Clearing rodents without closing the entry point produces a property that is clear on the day and reinfested by the next season, which is why landlord rodent work should always be quoted with proofing alongside it rather than treatment on its own.
When the tenant is responsible
Where an infestation is genuinely down to how the property is being used, the position shifts. Refuse stored indoors, bin lids that never close, food waste left out, or fleas introduced by a pet are all tenant caused in most readings, and the fitness duty does not bite where the unfitness is mainly attributable to the tenant’s own breach.
Even so, from working with clients across South East Kent, the sensible advice is nearly always the same. Arrange the treatment quickly and settle the cost afterwards. An infestation left running while liability is argued spreads to neighbouring properties, causes damage that is far more expensive than the visit would have been, and starts to look like a landlord failure regardless of how it began. Costs can be recovered later as damages for breach of the tenancy or through a deposit deduction at the end, but only with evidence, which means dated reports and photographs rather than an assertion. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 also prevents a landlord charging pest control to a tenant as a standing condition of the tenancy.
Getting into the property
We’ve found access, not treatment, is the most common reason a landlord job stalls. The notice requirement is straightforward on paper, but pest work rarely takes one visit. Rodent treatments need follow up visits, and flea and bed bug work needs the occupant to prepare rooms beforehand. Each of those stages needs cooperation, so it is worth agreeing a sequence of dates with the tenant at the outset rather than serving notice three separate times.
Refusal of access matters legally as well as practically. A landlord’s fitness obligation is qualified where the tenant will not let them or their contractor in to inspect or carry out work, so a written record of every access attempt protects the landlord’s position if the matter is later tested.
What a landlord can apply themselves
Very little, and this is where landlords most often get caught out. Professional rodenticides sit under a stewardship regime and can only be bought and used by people holding an approved certificate of competence. Product label conditions are legally binding, not guidance, and that applies to a landlord treating a property they own just as it applies to anyone else.
Shop bought products are limited by design and are intended for an occupier treating their own home. A landlord applying them in a property occupied by someone else’s children or pets is taking on a liability that a professional carries insurance for. There is also a record keeping problem. If environmental health becomes involved, or a disrepair claim follows, an informal account of having put some bait down is not evidence of anything.
Flats, terraces and HMOs
In our experience, treating a whole terrace or block at once works better than treating only the flat that reported the problem, because mice travel freely through shared subfloor voids and party wall cavities, so a single unit treatment displaces the population next door and the same tenant is back on the phone within a few weeks.
That has a specific bearing on the housing stock here. The Victorian terraces and large seafront conversions in Folkestone, Hythe, Dover and Deal were never built as separate units, and their subfloor voids and roof spaces frequently run the length of the building. Where a landlord owns one flat rather than the freehold, the technically correct answer involves the freeholder or managing agent, and getting that agreed takes time, so the conversation needs starting on day one rather than after the first treatment fails.
Shared bin stores are the other recurring weak point in converted property, and they sit squarely with whoever manages the building. Landlords running HMOs carry additional duties under the HMO management regulations, including adequate refuse provision, which is exactly the failure that produces rodent problems in the first place.
Rural lets around Ashford, Tenterden and out onto Romney Marsh have a different pattern again, with a predictable autumn push as harvest and ploughing move rats towards buildings. Landlords with agricultural edge properties are better served by a booked seasonal visit than by waiting for a tenant’s call in November.
The void period is the best window
Between tenancies you have an empty property, no preparation burden on an occupant, no access to negotiate and no one to work around. It is comfortably the most efficient time to treat, and the only time some jobs can be done properly, flea treatment after a tenant with pets moves out being the obvious example. We’ve found landlords who book the check out inspection and the pest visit in the same week lose far less time than those who wait for a new tenant to complain in their second month.
What is changing
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and is arriving in phases. The tenancy reforms took effect on 1 May 2026, the private rented sector database and landlord ombudsman follow from late 2026, and Awaab’s Law and the Decent Homes Standard are due to extend to the private rented sector in a later phase with the date still to be confirmed. Awaab’s Law has applied to social landlords since October 2025, setting fixed statutory timescales for investigating and remedying serious hazards.
The direction is clear enough to act on now. Timescales and documentation are becoming the measure of whether a landlord responded properly, which makes a dated professional report considerably more valuable than it used to be. Kent councils are already publishing landlord guidance on the changes, including Folkestone and Hythe District Council.
Getting it dealt with
We are a family run firm based in Dymchurch, BPCA members and approved by Kent County Council Trading Standards, working across domestic, commercial and industrial property since 2008 with more than twenty years in the trade behind it. We cover Ashford, Canterbury, Folkestone, Hythe, Dover, Deal, Tenterden and Romney Marsh, with a 24 hour response on urgent work.
If you manage let property and need an infestation dealt with properly, with the entry points closed rather than the same treatment repeated each year, get in touch.
