Killeen, TX Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 31-393 governs every vacant structure inside Killeen's Historic Overlay District (HOD), whether standing before the ordinance or converted afterward. Within 30 days of a building becoming vacant, the owner must register it with the city's code department, pay the registration and inspection fees set in the adopted fee schedule, name a local property manager, provide proof of property insurance at the appraised value, file a criminal-trespass affidavit with police, and schedule a city inspection within 60 calendar days. The registration's standard of care, enforced by the director, requires exterior surfaces including doors, window frames, cornices, porches and fences to stay weathertight "so as to prevent the entry of rodents and other pests," with siding and masonry joints kept water- and pest-resistant.

Basement hatchways must be maintained to keep out rodents, rain and drainage water, and any openable basement window must carry rodent shields, storm windows or other approved rodent barriers. The director inspects the exterior at registration, again within 60 days, and at least once every following 12 months while the structure stays vacant. Owners must reregister annually through January 31, with late fees for missed deadlines, and registration is nontransferable on a change of ownership. There is no separate citywide vector-control or rodent-baiting ordinance in the Killeen code outside this historic-district vacant-structure standard; the general property maintenance sections of Chapter 8 require weatherproofing but do not use the word rodent.