In September 2026, News 12 Westchester reported on a tenant at an apartment complex on Route 202 in Pomona who was seeing a rat a day, with droppings in the kitchen and food packaging chewed open, in a unit with a one-year-old. A county inspector found a dead rodent in a snap trap in the apartment. Rockland County issued three violations and ordered what counties always order in these cases: the unit assessed and treated by a licensed exterminator, entry points sealed, surrounding units investigated, and every apartment in the building inspected. Management, the station reported, had told the tenant the problem was his to handle. (News 12 Westchester)
Rest Easy runs rodent programs for apartment buildings, co-ops and condos across New York — Rockland and Westchester, the five boroughs, Nassau and Suffolk — and the Pomona order is a useful template, because it's what a county will require of you after the complaint. The point of a program is to have it before.
What the county ordered, and why each piece matters
- Licensed exterminator, not the tenant. A rodent in a unit is an owner's obligation under New York's warranty of habitability and local housing codes. Handing a tenant a trap doesn't discharge it.
- Entry points sealed. Mice and rats enter apartments through the gaps around pipes under the sink, behind the stove, at the baseboard heat line, and at the door sweep. Treating a unit without sealing it is a visit, not a fix.
- Surrounding units investigated. Rodents move through plumbing chases and wall voids. One tenant's complaint is a sample of the building, not the whole problem.
- Every apartment inspected. This is the order owners resent most, and it's the one that works. A building-wide inspection finds the two or three units that are feeding the population and the structural gaps that let it travel.
What a multifamily rodent program covers
- Inspection of every unit and all common areas — basement, compactor and boiler rooms, laundry, trash rooms, exterior building line — with a written report per unit.
- Interior trapping in units with activity.
- Tamper-resistant exterior bait stations on the building line, mapped and serviced.
- Rodent proofing: sealing the pipe penetrations, baseboard gaps, door sweeps and foundation openings that let rodents into and between units.
- Sanitation and harborage recommendations in writing — trash room practice, chute condition, storage — so management can act on them.
- Ongoing service with a log. When the county or a tenant's lawyer asks what you've done, the log is the answer.
The cost of not having one
The Pomona tenant asked for temporary housing. Rent abatements, HP actions and habitability claims all start the same way: a documented complaint, a county finding, and no owner record of a program. A building with dated inspections, a bait-station map and a service log is in a different conversation.
For owners and managers in Rockland, Westchester and across New York
If you own or manage a multifamily building and couldn't produce a rodent inspection record for every unit for the past year, a phone quote for a building program is free. Call 888-927-9842 or request a quote online.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is responsible for rats or mice in a New York apartment?
- The owner. New York's warranty of habitability and local housing codes make the landlord responsible for keeping units free of rodents; counties and HPD issue violations against owners, not tenants.
- What does a county rodent violation require a landlord to do?
- Typically: assessment and treatment by a licensed exterminator, sealing of entry points, investigation of adjacent units, and inspection of all units in the building, with re-inspection to confirm.
- Why inspect every apartment when only one tenant complained?
- Rodents travel through wall voids and plumbing chases between units. The complaining unit is where they were seen, not necessarily where they live or feed.
- How do mice get into an apartment?
- Through gaps around pipes under sinks and behind appliances, baseboard and heat-line gaps, door sweeps, and openings in the basement and trash rooms that connect to the wall voids.
- What records should a landlord keep for rodent control?
- Dated inspection reports by unit, a bait-station map, service visit logs, and documentation of entry points sealed and sanitation recommendations made.