Huntsville, AL Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Huntsville handles rodents through the minimum housing standards article of Chapter 7, not through a standalone vermin ordinance. Sec. 7-388(e) splits the extermination duty by building type. In a single-dwelling building, the occupant is responsible for exterminating insects, rodents and other pests within the building or premises. In a building containing two or more dwelling units, the owner carries that responsibility. The one fixed exception is wood-destroying organisms, insects or pests: those are the building owner's responsibility in every case, including a house the tenant occupies alone.

The Code defines the work broadly. Under Sec. 7-311, extermination means controlling and eliminating insects, rodents or other pests by removing their harborage places, by removing or making inaccessible materials that serve as their food, or by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping or any other recognized and legal pest elimination method. Infestation means the presence of insects, rodents or other pests within or around a dwelling or dwelling unit, so a rodent problem in the yard counts, not only one inside the walls.

Sec. 7-388(c) addresses the food source. Every tenant must dispose of garbage and any other organic waste that might provide food for rodents, plus all rubbish, by placing it in garbage disposal facilities or garbage or rubbish storage containers. Sec. 7-388(b) separately requires each tenant to keep the part of the dwelling, dwelling unit and premises that he occupies in a clean and sanitary condition, and Sec. 7-388(a) makes the owner of a multiple dwelling responsible for shared or common areas.

Structural rules back this up. Windows (Sec. 7-417), exterior doors, basement or cellar doors and hatchways (Sec. 7-418) must be substantially weathertight, watertight and rodentproof, and every floor, interior wall and ceiling must be substantially rodentproof (Sec. 7-422). A building that is vermin or rat infested also falls within the Sec. 7-311 definition of a substandard building, which opens the condemnation process in Sec. 7-353.

The housing official, defined as the manager of the department of community development or an authorized representative, enforces the article under Sec. 7-341 and Sec. 7-344, and may enter a property at reasonable hours on presenting identification.