Hempstead, NY Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 88-17 of the Housing and Rehabilitation Code, "Responsibilities of owners and occupants," splits pest-control duty by cause and scope. An occupant of a single-unit dwelling is responsible for exterminating any insects, rodents or other pests on the premises. In a multi-unit dwelling, an occupant is responsible only when infestation is confined to that one unit. The code shifts the burden to the owner in two situations: first, whenever the infestation traces back to the owner's failure to maintain the dwelling in a ratproof or reasonably insectproof condition, regardless of how many units are affected; second, whenever infestation exists in two or more dwelling units, or in the shared or common parts of a multi-unit dwelling, extermination becomes the owner's responsibility outright.

The same section requires every owner of a two-or-more-unit dwelling to keep the shared and common areas clean and sanitary, and requires every occupant to keep the part of the premises they occupy clean and sanitary, to bag rubbish and garbage properly in the containers the code requires, and to hang window screens except where the owner has agreed to supply that service. These duties sit inside the same chapter that lets the Manager of the Building Department condemn and placard a dwelling as unfit for human habitation under § 88-18 when it is vermin-infested to a degree that creates a serious hazard to occupants or the public.