Old Bridge, NJ Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 235-5 of the Old Bridge Township housing code sets baseline rodentproofing standards for every dwelling, hotel, motel, rooming house, and boardinghouse in the Township. Every foundation must adequately support the building and stay free of breaks, holes, or cracks that admit rodents, insects, or vermin, and any exterior parts subject to corrosion must be kept painted. Outside walls cannot have holes, loose boards, or damaged finish that let rodents in, and every exterior door, window, and cellar or basement entrance must be reasonably weathertight, watertight, and rodentproof, with hardware kept in good repair.

Section 235-12 places the extermination duty squarely on the property: every occupant, owner, or operator is responsible for extermination whenever a single dwelling unit is infested, but once infestation is caused by the owner's failure to keep the building ratproof, or spreads to two or more units or the common areas of a multi-unit dwelling, responsibility shifts to the owner. Where the Construction Official finds a dwelling in an infested area, the owner must carry out rat stoppage, vermin-proofing, or whatever other preventive measures the Construction Official orders.

Enforcement runs through Section 235-4: the Construction Official must put any cited violation in writing, identifying the section violated, and give the owner or occupant up to 60 days to abate or correct it. If a reasonable effort to fix the violation has not been made by the deadline, the Construction Official summons the responsible party into Old Bridge Township Municipal Court, and in a genuine emergency the Construction Official may issue an immediate verbal order requiring action without waiting for written notice or a hearing.