Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

I have a very silly question, almost embarrassing to ask, but is a great concern to us. I currently rent and we moved in February 6, 2009 and noticed bugs, I am talking about large cockroach type bugs, but my husband and I dismissed this because we knew the house was vacant for quite some time. We sprayed store bought products, which did not seem to help. I am not talking about these bugs crawling around constantly, but we see at least 1 to 2 a week. Anyway my husband knew of an exterminator tech that provided us with some chemicals to lay around the house and under the cabinets, and we noticed that we did not see them that often, but only after 2 to 3 weeks, we start seeing these nasty bugs again. I saw one crawl out of my silverware drawer and near our pantry. They are disgusting. I contacted the Agent for Remax October 7, 2009 to let her know that we are having issues. She advised us that because we did not first notify her the owner is not responsible for any bug issues. I understand this has been quite some time, but we try to take the necessary steps first and my husband has sent a couple emails to her regarding this issue before October 7, 2009, but to no avail. I looked at the lease and I did not see anywhere in the contract about insects and who is responsible, so it sounds like it will fall back on us. My question is: Is it the responsibility of the Landlord or tenant for spraying for insects?

Thank you for your time and help,

Jeannette


Asked on 10/07/09, 10:17 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Without reviewing the language of the lease agreement agreement itself (and its reasonable inferences therefrom), I couldn't say, one way or the other.

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Answered on 10/12/09, 12:09 pm


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