Indianapolis, IN Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sec. 537-31 is the operative exterior maintenance standard for every structure in Indianapolis and Marion County, enforced by the division of property and land use services within the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services. Subsection (2) bars an owner from accumulating junk, trash, debris, boxes, lumber, scrap metal or junk vehicles in a way that could shelter rats, and requires anything stored on the premises to be stacked safely and raised at least 18 inches off the ground. Subsection (8) makes it unlawful for any structure, vehicle, receptacle, yard, lot or premises to be maintained in a manner that becomes, or is conducive to, rat harborage; subsection (9) applies the identical rule to mosquito harborage.

Subsection (18) puts the extermination duty squarely on the owner: they are responsible for exterminating insects, rats and other vermin in or about the premises. Subsection (19) goes further and demands a rat-proof structure, not just an exterminated one: every opening in the exterior walls, foundations, doors, windows, sewers, pipes, drains, basements, and ground and first floors must be closed and made rat-proof in an approved manner, and interior basement and cellar floors in contact with soil must be rat-proofed to standards approved by the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.

Sec. 537-11 layers on a second track: no residential structure may be occupied unless it also meets the county's separate Housing and Environmental Standards Ordinance administered by the Health and Hospital Corporation. Enforcement of an exterior maintenance violation runs through the repair-order process in IC 36-7-9-5(a)(5): the order becomes final 90 days after issuance unless the owner requests a hearing under IC 36-7-9-7, and a properly requested informal hearing on any resulting civil penalty goes before the director of the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services under Sec. 537-12.