Is the Landlord Responsible for Pest Control in Ontario? Tenant Rights Explained

Yes. In an Ontario rental, pest control is the landlord's responsibility in almost every case, rats and mice included, and that covers the bed bug exterminator in Scarborough or the rat control in Scarborough your unit needs. The Residential Tenancies Act places a legal duty on the landlord to keep the unit in a good state of repair and fit to live in, and that duty stretches to cover infestations of cockroaches, bed bugs, mice, and rats. A landlord cannot sign the duty away, even where the lease claims the tenant handles pests. This page sets out who pays, what a tenant can do when the landlord ignores it, and the single duty that does land on the tenant.

This is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, contact the Landlord and Tenant Board or a legal clinic.

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Who is responsible for pest control in an Ontario rental?

The landlord. Section 20 of Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act requires a landlord to keep the rental unit and the building in a good state of repair and fit for habitation, and to meet health, safety, and maintenance standards. An infestation of cockroaches, bed bugs, mice, or rats renders a unit unfit under that section, which puts both the treatment and the bill on the landlord.

This holds even where your lease says pest control is the tenant's responsibility. Section 4 of the same Act voids any term in a tenancy agreement that conflicts with the Act. A landlord cannot contract out of the section 20 maintenance duty. A clause that tries to make you pay for extermination has no force.

There is one narrow exception in practice. Where a tenant clearly and solely caused the infestation, a landlord can try to recover the cost, but they have to prove it at the Landlord and Tenant Board, and that is a high bar. Bed bugs and cockroaches move through walls, shared laundry, and second-hand furniture, so pinning the source on one tenant is rarely possible. The default sits with the landlord.

Tenant rights for pest control in Ontario, in one list

• The landlord pays for treatment, for cockroaches, bed bugs, mice, and rats, under section 20 of the Residential Tenancies Act.
• A lease clause cannot change that. Section 4 voids any term that tries to put pest control on the tenant.
• The landlord must act within a reasonable time once you report it. Report in writing and keep the date.
• You cannot be evicted for reporting pests or for asking for repairs.
• You can file a T6 with the Landlord and Tenant Board if the landlord ignores it, and the Board can order the work and a rent abatement.
• Your duties are narrow: keep the unit reasonably clean, prepare for treatment, and give access on the scheduled day.

Is the landlord responsible for rodent control?

Yes. Mice and rats inside a rental unit or the building are the landlord's to deal with, the same as insects, because an active rodent infestation makes the unit unfit under section 20. In Scarborough the City of Toronto's property standards and rodent rules also put the duty to keep a property free of rodents on the owner. Rodent work means trapping, sealing entry points, and exterior burrow treatment, and the landlord arranges and pays for all of it.

Who pays for bed bugs in an Ontario rental?

The landlord. Bed bugs fall under section 20 like any other infestation. The landlord arranges and pays for treatment, and in one of Scarborough's aging apartment towers along Kingston Road or Eglinton East that usually means treating the affected unit plus the ones on either side and above and below, because bed bugs travel through wall voids and outlet gaps.

Bed bug treatment is the priciest pest job there is, which is precisely why some landlords push back. A single-room chemical treatment runs a few hundred dollars, and whole-home heat treatment climbs into the thousands. None of that shifts who is responsible. If you want to know what the treatment actually involves before that conversation, read our bed bug treatment page.

Who pays for cockroaches in an Ontario rental?

The landlord, on the same section 20 footing. German cockroaches are the signature rental infestation in Scarborough's tower stock, the older high-rises and low-rises strung along Kingston Road, Eglinton East, Lawrence East, and Markham Road, where shared plumbing and pipe chases carry them from unit to unit. That spread is exactly why a genuine fix has to be coordinated across units by the landlord, not fought one apartment at a time by individual tenants.

A tenant who buys store gel bait and treats their own kitchen is taking on a building-wide problem one room at a time, and it does not hold. The roaches fall back to the untreated unit next door and return. Our cockroach control page explains why German roaches need a building-level plan.

Who pays for mice and rats in an Ontario rental?

The landlord, on the same section 20 footing. Mice and rats make a unit unfit to live in, so locating the entry points, sealing them, and clearing the infestation is the landlord's job and the landlord's cost. Rodents are a building problem before they are a unit problem: they get in through gaps around pipes, the foundation, and the ground floor, common in Scarborough's older low-rises and semi-detached stock, then move through wall voids and shared spaces, so a genuine fix means exclusion work on the building, not just traps in one apartment. If your landlord is only setting out bait, our rat control page and mouse control page lay out what a proper trapping-and-sealing job looks like, so you know what to ask for.

What can a tenant do if the landlord won't deal with the pests?

Four steps, worked in order, and each one builds the record for the next.

1. Get it on record. Report the infestation to the landlord in writing, by text or email, and hold onto a copy. Put a date on it, spell out what you are finding, and ask them to book treatment. A phone call is easy for them to deny down the line, while a written trail is the evidence you will lean on.
2. Escalate to the city. Scarborough is part of the City of Toronto, so the city's rental rules apply here in full, and there are two municipal routes depending on your building. If you rent in an apartment building with at least 10 units and 3 or more storeys, which describes most of the towers along Kingston Road, Eglinton East, and Markham Road, it falls under RentSafeTO, the city's rental housing standards program, and you report the pests through 311. For a smaller building, a walk-up, a house, or a basement unit, you report a violation under the city's property standards and rodent control bylaw instead. Either way a municipal standards officer can inspect and order the landlord to fix it by a set date. It is often the quickest lever you have, since a city order comes with a deadline and penalties attached.
3. File with the Landlord and Tenant Board. If nothing moves, file a T6, the Tenant Application about Maintenance, with the Landlord and Tenant Board. That is the exact form for this problem, and naming it saves you time. The Board can order the work done, grant a rent abatement covering the time you lived with the pests, and make the landlord cover costs.
4. Document from start to finish. Dated photos, every written complaint, the landlord's replies, receipts for anything you had to buy yourself, and medical notes if the pests hit your health. At the Board, the tenant holding the paper trail is the one who wins.

Do not stop paying rent as your opening move. Withholding rent can drop you into arrears and expose you to an eviction application, and it is not the remedy the system recognizes. The T6 application and the property standards complaint are the channels that actually carry weight.

What to do this week

Start the paper trail today. If your landlord is stalling on pests in your Scarborough unit, this is the fastest sequence that actually protects you, and none of it needs a lawyer.

1. Today: Send the landlord a dated written notice by text or email that names the pests and asks them to book treatment. Take photos of what you are seeing, with the date showing.
2. This week: If nothing real comes back, call 311 and report it under RentSafeTO if you are in one of the larger Kingston Road or Markham Road buildings, or under property standards if you are in a walk-up or house, and ask for an inspection.
3. Keep going: Keep every reply, receipt, and photo in one folder. If the landlord still drags, that folder becomes your T6 application to the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Doing these three things in order is what turns a complaint the landlord can wave off into a record the city and the Board will act on.

What can the Landlord and Tenant Board order?

Real remedies, not just a warning. When a tenant files a T6 and shows the landlord failed to deal with an infestation, the Landlord and Tenant Board can order any of the following.

• The work done. An order making the landlord arrange and pay for professional treatment, usually on a fixed timeline.
• A rent abatement. Money back for the stretch you lived with the pests. The Board sets the abatement as a percentage of your rent, tied to how badly the infestation cut into your use of the unit, so a serious, drawn-out problem can claw back a real share of the rent for those months.
• Reimbursement of your costs. Out-of-pocket money the landlord's inaction forced on you, such as your own extermination receipts, replaced furniture, or extra laundry.
• Repairs by a hard date, and in serious cases a fine paid to the Board on top of your remedy.

How big the abatement runs comes down to your evidence, which is why the paper trail matters so much. Dated photos, written complaints, and the landlord's own replies are what move a hearing.

If you are the landlord: how to handle it right

Move fast and document everything. The law puts the cost on you in almost every case, so the winning play is not to fight it but to clear it before it spreads and before it reaches the Board.

• Book professional treatment quickly. In Scarborough's older Kingston Road and Eglinton East buildings, German cockroaches and bed bugs run between units through shared plumbing and wall voids, so treating one apartment in isolation burns money. Treat the affected unit and its neighbours together, on a coordinated plan.
• Document your reasonable steps. Keep records of when you were told, when you booked treatment, the pest company's reports, and any follow-up visits. If a tenant later claims you sat on it, those records are your defence at the LTB.
• Give proper entry notice. You or your pest company can enter to treat with 24 hours' written notice stating the time. Skipping notice can blow up a treatment and hand the tenant a complaint.
• Treat a city order as a hard deadline. If a municipal standards officer issues an order, it carries a firm compliance date. Missing it invites fines and strengthens any tenant application against you.
• Only pursue a tenant for the cost if you can genuinely prove sole cause, and even then through the Board, not by billing them or reaching into a deposit. In a multi-unit building that proof is rarely there.

When a crew has to be coordinated across several units on a real deadline, that is the kind of job our service partner Insectica handles day to day.

Can a landlord charge the tenant for pest control?

Only in the narrow case where they can prove at the LTB that the tenant alone caused the infestation, and they have to go to the Board to do it. A landlord cannot simply add an extermination charge to your account, take it out of your deposit, or bill you directly because the lease says so. That lease term is void under section 4 of the Act.

If a landlord has charged you or is threatening to, that is exactly the situation to raise with the Landlord and Tenant Board or a community legal clinic.

What is the tenant actually responsible for?

Cooperation, and this part matters. A tenant has a duty to keep the unit reasonably clean and to allow and support the treatment. In practice that means:

• Give the technician access. With 24 hours' written notice, the landlord or their pest company can enter to carry out the treatment. Turning them away can push responsibility back onto you and undercut a claim at the Board.
• Handle the prep. Bed bug and cockroach jobs only work on a prepared unit: bag the laundry, clear the clutter, pull furniture off the walls, empty the lower cabinets. Follow the prep sheet if the pest company hands one over. Treating an unprepared unit fails, and repeated failures traced to skipped prep can fall on the tenant.
• Avoid feeding the problem. Keeping food sealed, taking the garbage out, and not dragging in infested second-hand furniture are all fair tenant duties.

The rule of thumb: the landlord pays for and arranges the treatment, and the tenant makes the unit ready and lets the work happen. When both sides do their part, infestations clear. When the landlord stalls, the tenant's tools are the written notice, the 311 complaint, and the LTB application.

Common questions

Reviewed October 2026.

(289) 806-3934