Can tenants be liable for bringing roaches into an apartment?
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Can tenants be liable for bringing roaches into an apartment?
I’m a property owner whose had a roach free building until now. One unit has roaches and the tenants happen to be Latin American. Can they be held responsible for bringing roaches into the apartment. None of the other units have roaches or called with any concerns, so it just seems to be limited to this one apartment.
Asked on February 23, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Wisconsin
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
If you can establish that the tenant brought the roaches in, then you may be able to recover the cost of extirmination, cleaning, etc. treatments from the tenant; to do so, you would need to be able to establish in court, by a preponderance of the evidence (i.e. by evidence making it appear "more likely than not") that the tenant has brought the roaches into the building, and furthermore, that they did so either negligently (or carelessly; such as by not keeping their space clean and hygienic) or deliberately.
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