Mountain View, CA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Sec. 4 of Chapter 25, Article I, Neighborhood Preservation, lists unlawful property conditions that apply to every owner in the city, not just landlords of rental housing. Subsection (a) targets rodent and pest harborage directly: it is unlawful to maintain overgrown, diseased, dead, or decayed trees, weeds, or other vegetation that constitute a fire hazard or a danger to public health, safety, and general welfare, including any vegetation, condition, material, or harborage likely to attract or shelter rats, vermin, or other pests. The same section separately bans accumulated garbage, refuse, and debris except as stored under Chapter 16's solid waste rules (subsection b), and lists lumber, trash, and debris piles and improperly secured machinery as accessibility hazards that can also breed pests (subsection d).

Sec. 3 declares any violation of the chapter a public nuisance, which the city can abate. Sec. 8 lets the city manager or city attorney order abatement, with written notice mailed at least ten calendar days before the city acts (Sec. 2), and a right to request a hearing within ten days of that notice (Sec. 3). Sec. 1's findings tie this framework to the state's authority under Vehicle Code Sec. 22660 and note that neglected property "creates a potential harborage for rodents and insects," the same concern that reappears in the separate abandoned-vehicle findings elsewhere in Chapter 25.

For rental housing specifically, an infestation of insects, vermin, or rodents inside the structure is also a separate inspection criterion under Sec. 58(p), enforced through the hotel, motel, and multi-family housing inspection program.