In an Ontario rental, the landlord carries the responsibility for pest control in nearly every case. 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 infestations of cockroaches, bed bugs, mice, or rats fall squarely inside that duty. The landlord cannot sign it away, even where the lease claims the tenant handles pests. This page sets out who pays, what a tenant can do when the landlord stalls, and the one duty that genuinely belongs to the tenant. It applies to a Markham condo, a Richmond Hill basement apartment, or a Newmarket townhouse alike.
This is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, contact the Landlord and Tenant Board or a community 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, so treating it is the landlord's job and the landlord's expense.
That 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, so a clause forcing you to pay for extermination is not enforceable.
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 must prove it at the Landlord and Tenant Board, and that bar is high. 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 stays with the landlord.
Who pays for bed bugs in an Ontario rental?
The landlord. Bed bugs are handled the same as any other infestation under section 20. The landlord arranges and pays for treatment, and in a multi-unit building, a low-rise Thornhill apartment or a Vaughan condo tower, that usually means treating the affected unit plus the ones beside, above, and below it, because bed bugs travel through wall voids and outlet gaps.
A landlord who tells you "you brought them in, so you pay" is almost always wrong under Ontario law. Unless they can prove at the LTB that you alone caused it, the cost is theirs. Get any such demand in writing before you agree to anything.
Bed bug treatment is the most expensive pest job there is, which is precisely why some landlords resist it. 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 infestation most likely to spread through older apartment and condo stock, and they move unit to unit through shared plumbing and wall voids. That spread is exactly why a real fix has to be coordinated across units by the landlord, not tackled one apartment at a time by individual tenants.
A tenant who buys store gel bait and treats their own kitchen is fighting 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 demand a building-level plan.
What can a tenant do if the landlord won't deal with the pests?
You have four steps, in order.
- Put it in writing. Notify the landlord of the infestation in writing (text and email both count) and keep a copy. Date it, describe what you are seeing, and ask them to arrange treatment. A verbal complaint is easy to deny later; a written record is your evidence.
- Report it to your municipality's property standards office. Every town in York Region, Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Newmarket, Aurora and the rest, maintains a property-standards bylaw that requires rental housing to be kept free of pests, enforced by that town's bylaw or property-standards department. A municipal standards officer can inspect and issue an order requiring the landlord to act. This is often the fastest lever, because a municipal order carries a deadline and penalties. Call your town's bylaw or property-standards line if you are not sure who handles it.
- Apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board. If the landlord still does nothing, you can file a maintenance application (a T6) with the Landlord and Tenant Board. The Board can order the landlord to do the work, order a rent abatement for the time you lived with the infestation, and order them to pay costs.
- Keep documenting the whole way through. Dated photos, your written complaints, the landlord's replies, receipts for anything you had to buy, and any medical notes if the pests affected your health. The tenant with the paper trail is the tenant who wins at the Board.
Do not withhold rent as an opening move. Withholding can put you in arrears and expose you to an eviction application, and it is not the sanctioned remedy. The T6 application and the property-standards complaint are the routes the system actually backs.
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 from your deposit, or bill you directly because the lease says so. That lease term is void under section 4 of the Act.
The lease clause that makes you pay for pests is not worth the paper it is printed on. Ontario law overrides it.
If a landlord has already 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:
- Let the exterminator in. The landlord (or their pest company) can enter with 24 hours' written notice to carry out the treatment. Blocking access can shift responsibility onto you and weaken a claim at the Board.
- Do the prep. Bed bug and cockroach treatments need the unit prepared: bag laundry, clear clutter, pull furniture off the walls, empty lower cabinets. If the pest company hands you a prep sheet, follow it. A treatment on an unprepared unit fails, and repeat failures caused by no prep can land on the tenant.
- Don't make it worse. Keeping food sealed, taking out garbage, and steering clear of infested second-hand furniture are reasonable 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 get cleared. When the landlord stalls, the tenant's tools are the written notice, the municipal property-standards complaint, and the LTB application.
Common questions
Does my lease saying "tenant pays for pest control" mean I have to pay?
No. Section 4 of the Residential Tenancies Act voids any lease term that conflicts with the Act, and the landlord's section 20 maintenance duty covers pests. The clause is unenforceable.
How fast does a landlord have to act on an infestation?
The Act says a reasonable time, and it is not fixed to a set number of days. An active bed bug or cockroach infestation is urgent, and a delay of weeks after written notice is a strong basis for a property-standards complaint and an LTB application.
Can I be evicted for reporting pests?
No. Reporting an infestation or filing a maintenance complaint is protected. A landlord who retaliates with an eviction can face a bad-faith application at the Board. Do not let the fear of eviction stop you from putting the complaint in writing.
What if the whole building has cockroaches or bed bugs?
Then it needs a building-wide, coordinated treatment arranged by the landlord, which is the only approach that works for pests that travel between units. One tenant treating one unit cannot solve it. Report it to the landlord in writing and to your town's property-standards office if they stall.
I'm a landlord. Do I really have to pay even if the tenant brought them in?
In almost all cases, yes, because proving a single tenant solely caused an infestation like bed bugs or cockroaches is very hard, and the duty defaults to you. Arranging fast, professional, coordinated treatment is cheaper than an LTB fight and a spreading infestation.
Who do I call first, the municipality or the Board?
Your town's property-standards office is usually faster and puts a dated order on the landlord. The LTB application is the route for orders and rent abatement if the landlord still does not act. Many tenants pursue both.
Reviewed August 2026.
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