Hamilton, NJ Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 268-15, Responsibilities of owners and occupants, sits in Chapter 268, Housing Standards, and divides day-to-day maintenance duties between landlords and tenants. Subsection E puts the extermination of "any insects, rodents or other pests" on whichever occupant, owner or operator controls the affected space: in a single dwelling unit that becomes infested, the resident occupant is normally on the hook for extermination. Two exceptions shift that duty to the owner. First, if the infestation exists because the owner failed to maintain the dwelling in a ratproof or reasonably insectproof condition in the first place, extermination becomes the owner's responsibility regardless of who occupies the unit.

Second, if infestation is found in two or more of the dwelling units within the same multi-unit dwelling, the owner must handle extermination throughout the building, since a unit-by-unit response cannot control a building-wide pest problem. The extermination duty pairs with § 268-8's structural standards, which require foundations, exterior walls, and exterior doors, windows and cellar entrances to be kept rodentproof and free of the holes, cracks or gaps that create harborage for pests, and with § 268-15D, which requires occupants to store garbage in the containers required by § 268-11 rather than leaving food waste exposed to attract rodents.