Plainfield, NJ Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Section 6:5-9(m) of the Plainfield Municipal Code lists three conditions under the heading Vermin: severe roach infestation, mouse infestation and rat infestation. The wording is not uniform. Roaches must be severe to count, while mouse infestation and rat infestation carry no qualifier at all.

These conditions matter because of when the inspection happens. Under § 6:5-2, nobody in the City of Plainfield can sell, transfer, lease, rent or deliver a building or dwelling unit for occupancy without a certificate of compliance from the Director of the Division of Inspections. The inspection checks the building against the Plainfield Property Maintenance Code, the Uniform Construction Code where it applies, and the Plainfield Zoning Ordinance. Multi-family dwellings with four or more units are also inspected every two years under § 6:5-7(b), and a complaint alleging a violation of Chapter 6 triggers an inspection within 72 hours.

An infestation sits on the same list as no running water, no hot water where the operator must supply it, defective toilets, sewer line blockage and roof leaks. The Director decides whether a condition warrants denial. Under § 6:5-11 the Director can issue a temporary certificate valid up to forty-five days, extended by another forty-five and capped at ninety days, if the premises are in substantial compliance and denial would impose a hardship.

Outside the rental and sale process, § 9:6-8(a) requires licensed junk yard premises to be maintained so as not to constitute a place for the breeding of rodents and vermin. Section 8:3-7 exempts the use of economic poisons, a term that includes rodenticides under § 8:3-3, from the air pollution prohibition.