Marion, OH Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Chapter 662 of the Marion Codified Ordinances sets minimum hygiene and sanitation standards for dwellings in the City of Marion, Ohio, and § 662.02(A) limits those regulations to residential dwellings only. Section 662.03 defines EXTERMINATION as the control and elimination of insects, rodents, or other pests by eliminating their harborage places, by removing or making inaccessible materials that serve as their food, by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping or by any other recognized and legal pest elimination method. INFESTATION is the presence within or around a dwelling of any insects, rodents, or other pests.

Section 662.07(X) then splits the responsibility. Under division (X)(1), the occupant of a dwelling with a single unit must exterminate rodents on the premises, and an occupant in a building with more than one unit must do so whenever his or her unit is the only one infested. Division (X)(2) shifts the duty to the owner when the infestation is caused by the owner's failure to keep the dwelling rodent proof. Division (X)(3) makes the owner responsible when two or more units are infested or when the shared or public parts of a building with two or more units are infested. Division (X)(4) requires the owner of an infested rental unit that becomes vacant for any reason to have the premises exterminated before it is re-occupied.

Prevention is covered by § 662.07(W)(1). Vacant lots, every dwelling, accessory structure and the premises must be kept free of garbage, rubbish, refuse, animal wastes, stagnant water and other conditions that are a potential source of breeding, harborage and infestation of insects, vermin, and rodents, as determined by the Health Commissioner.

Enforcement sits with the Marion County General Health District. Section 662.02(B) places all necessary authority with that District, its Administrators and Employees, who enforce under R.C. §§ 3707.01, 3707.02 and 3709.20, and it keeps authority in the City officers charged with compliance with the Marion codes. Section 662.04 authorizes the Health Commissioner to inspect dwellings, dwelling units and premises, and the owner or occupant must give free access at reasonable times.