Bellevue, WA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)
Key Facts
- Owner duty
- Furnish rodent/insect prevention devices
- Extermination
- Owner's job unless lease assigns tenant
- Occupant duty
- Proper rubbish/garbage disposal
- Governing code
- BCC 23.22.040(D)-(F)
- Health officer
- Seattle-King County Public Health director
- Enforcement route
- Public nuisance abatement, BCC 1.18
Summary
Bellevue's Uniform Housing Code makes owners responsible for supplying and maintaining approved devices to prevent insect and rodent infestation in residential buildings, and for exterminating any infestation unless a lease or ruling shifts that duty to the tenant. Occupants must keep their own space clean and dispose of garbage and organic waste properly.
D. Owners shall, when required by this chapter, the city-adopted health regulations, or the health officer, furnish and maintain such approved sanitary facilities as required, and shall furnish and maintain approved devices, equipment or facilities for the prevention of insect and rodent infestation, and when infestation has taken place, shall be responsible for the extermination of any insects, rodents or other pests when such extermination is not specifically made the responsibility of the occupant by law or ruling. E. Occupants of a dwelling unit, in addition to being responsible for keeping in a clean, sanitary and safe condition that part of the dwelling or dwelling unit or premises which they occupy and control, shall dispose of their rubbish, garbage and other organic waste in a manner required by the city-adopted health regulations and approved by the health officer.
Official source re-checked September 8, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: current through Ordinance 6929, passed July 14, 2026).
Full Breakdown
040, Responsibilities Defined, splits pest-prevention duties between owner and occupant within Bellevue's Uniform Housing Code. Owners remain liable for violations of the chapter even where a lease assigns a duty to the tenant, and must keep the structure and any shared public areas in a clean, sanitary and safe condition (subsections A through C). Subsection D is the operative rodent rule: owners must furnish and maintain approved devices, equipment or facilities for the prevention of insect and rodent infestation, and once an infestation occurs, the owner is responsible for extermination unless that duty has specifically been made the occupant's responsibility by law or ruling.
Occupant duties run alongside this: subsection E requires occupants to keep the part of the unit and premises they control clean, sanitary and safe and to dispose of rubbish, garbage and other organic waste as required by the city's adopted health regulations and approved by the health officer, while subsection F requires occupants to furnish any devices the health officer requires to keep their own premises safe and sanitary. "
Violations & Fines
A property with an unaddressed rodent or pest problem can be declared a public nuisance under BCC 23.22.050 and abated by repair, rehabilitation or other correction. Violating the chapter's owner or occupant duties is a civil violation under Chapter 1.18 BCC per BCC 23.22.060, which allows the city to assess a monetary penalty and to require abatement work from whichever party the code holds responsible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is responsible for pest control in a Bellevue rental?
What must tenants do to prevent rodents in Bellevue?
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Bellevue
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Rodent Control in Nearby Cities
How other cities in King County handle rodent control.