Charleston Code Chapter 20 housing standards require landlords to maintain rental units free of rodent and insect infestations. Tenants share responsibility for sanitation, and code enforcement can require professional treatment for serious infestations.
Under Charleston Code Chapter 20 (Housing) and the WV State Building Code maintenance provisions which adopt the International Property Maintenance Code, residential rental units must be kept free of rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, and other vermin. The landlord is generally responsible for initial extermination and for treating common areas, structural conditions enabling pests, and infestations affecting multiple units. Tenants are responsible for cleanliness and for promptly reporting infestations. Code enforcement officers can inspect after complaints, issue notices to abate, and require licensed pest-control treatment with documentation. Persistent infestations may render a unit uninhabitable and trigger relocation or rent-withholding remedies under state landlord-tenant law.
Unaddressed infestations can result in housing code citations, abatement orders, daily fines, condemnation in severe cases, and tenant rights to repair-and-deduct or rent withholding.
Charleston, WV
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See how Charleston's pest control rules stack up against other locations.
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