Complaint from tenant with ants and cockroaches.

Property manager just emailed us saying my tenant who has been in the property for 2 months (old style cottage in queensland) has a few issues:

Toilet not flushing properly.

Downstairs light not working.

Problem with ants (nice black ones not the white ones) and cockroaches.

Items 1 + 2 no big hassles happy to have fixed.

My question is what would you do with a complaint for ants and cockroaches?

We sent the pro's in for a full clean (carpets, walls, ceilings, cupboards) prior to having the property rented.

I am not to sure if this falls under the tenant's domain (cleanliness) or the landlords (property maintenance). I have had a quick look at the tenancies act for queensland however it comes across a bit grey.

Anyone been in similar position please feel free to share your thoughts.

Cheers, Fourex.
 
Do you think the ants and cockroach are from the rain we have been having.
I personally have been noticing more cockroach and ant activity lately during this rain:confused:
 
With a student place I find that the biggest issue with ants and cockroaches is tenant's not sweeping their floors each day (evening preferably).

All the food scraps in the kitchen and bins seem to attract them.

So many folks just don't seem to have the same cleanliness standards that many of us take for granted.

Perhaps your tenant is leaving food out to attract the ants and cockies? Mice and rats might be next :eek:
 
if they / if they arent no one knows

Don't know, pay for it, or talk to them see how they feel and work something out about who pays for it (actually I think you'll end up working out that you're gonna pay for it).
 
Surely if there was no cockroaches and ants when they moved in it's not your problem as the LL?

They are not always visible. If a tenant complains (and they have only been in residence a short time) I will get the place sprayed. After that, I tell them it's their problem.:D
 
I love my medium size black ants,

When they are in residence in my cavity walls, no whities are around..........they are black ant food

ta
rolf
 
They are not always visible. If a tenant complains (and they have only been in residence a short time) I will get the place sprayed. After that, I tell them it's their problem.:D

This is pretty much how we do things too. As each tenant leaves, they have the house treated for pests. It usually means we only have to do it once (or maybe if a tenant leaves without having done the spray for some reason).
 
I would do it once and then tell the tenants it is up to them from then on. We work on a rule of thumb in our office that if it is the first 3 months of tenancy the landlord does it after that it could be the way the tenants living causing it, so it is up to them. We got this 3 month idea from a tribunal member advisor... he couldn't tell us whose responsibility it was or guarantee anything (as is always the case) but he thought that that rule of thumb showed the landlord was acting on reports, but wasn't going to have to be doing it all the time.

on a side note we fully cleaned our office removed all food and rubish etc before the christmas/new year period when we closed. Since we have been back we have been over run with little cockroaches. We have bombed and surfaced sprayed... .and now not only are they every where they are angry!
 
If the "little" cockroaches are light coloured, they sound like "German" cockroaches and you need someone who knows what they are doing to eradicate them. They are tricky little chaps and hard to shift, so get in a professional IMO.
 
If the "little" cockroaches are light coloured, they sound like "German" cockroaches and you need someone who knows what they are doing to eradicate them. They are tricky little chaps and hard to shift, so get in a professional IMO.

In our first PPOR we had Flick do a spray every year (cause I hate cockroaches). One year we got German roaches and we had to get Flick back around 4 times before we were able to eradicate the things.
 
I would do it once and then tell the tenants it is up to them from then on. We work on a rule of thumb in our office that if it is the first 3 months of tenancy the landlord does it after that it could be the way the tenants living causing it, so it is up to them. We got this 3 month idea from a tribunal member advisor...
That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Fourex, pay to get it done by somebody who provides a warranty. My pest controller will come back for free to re-treat for cockroaches and rats etc for 12 months. (I just pay them to treat our PPOR annually, then call them in between if I notice any particular problem.) I don't think companies that offer this are necessarily any more expensive, and then you can just give the number of the pest company to the property manager and they can deal with it if it recurs. :)

I think regular pest control is a necessity in Queensland; I never had cockroaches, weevils, carpet moths, or rats before living here... now I've experienced all of these delights. :D
 
Thanks for the comments.

I needed someone to break the deadlock between my partner and I both being on the opposite side of the fence on this one.

Partner feeling we should pay for a pest spray
Reasons - Feels it is a maintenance issue and being a grey area it will fall on our side.

Myself feeling we should have held off on the spray
Reasons - Place was left in a clean state, tenant has been allowed an inside pet dog and thinking along the lines of Pa1nter that the rain might have been a factor and the tenant might have cleanliness issues.

From the majority of posts it looks like one spray is what is fair from a landlords position.

Thanks for the tip ozerp on the warranty for the respray if required.

I know at least the other half will be happy winning this one at least.

Cheers, Fourex.
 
I thought that you were required to do a pest spray once a year in QLD - I know when we were renting we had really bad black ants come in from outside and just attack our baby - could not leave him for a min on a rug on the floor - agent told us that the owners have to spray each year - it was done. Oh and BTW amalgamated pest control have an ant guarantee - they will come back and respray if the ants return
 
On a follow up note.

We placed an enquiry with the RTA of Qld with what the guidelines are in this situation.

There response was there is no mandatory requirement required as a landlord and it is normally done by negotiation between the tenant and landlord.

Cheers,

Fourex.
 
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