Richmond, VA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Article III of Chapter 15 puts Richmond's rodent control duties on both owners and occupants and hands enforcement to the District Health Director. Section 15-64 bans letting rubbish, boxes, lumber, scrap metal, vehicle bodies, or similar materials accumulate in a way that could shelter rats, and requires any stored lumber or boxes to be neatly piled at least one foot above the ground or floor; a violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor on its own terms. Section 15-65 separately bars leaving out refuse that could feed rats or other rodents, requiring it to be stored under the container rules in Chapter 23, and § 15-66 requires every refuse container opening to have a tight-fitting lid.

Bird feed gets its own rule at § 15-67: it must sit on a raised platform or otherwise be kept out of rodents' reach. Section 15-68 requires an owner or occupant to start extermination immediately once rats or other rodents are found, with the owner responsible for common areas in multi-occupant buildings and each occupant responsible for their own unit; on public sidewalks, streets, alleys, or sewers, the District Health Director handles elimination, and on City-owned land the custodial department does. If a vacant property's owner ignores a notice to exterminate and cannot be served with a summons, the Director can post a five-day notice and then eliminate the infestation directly, billing the owner through the Director of Finance.

No building can be demolished until its rat infestation is cleared and its sewer connection capped at the property line. Section 15-68(e) bars placing Compound 1080 anywhere on a premises, and restricts ANTU, phosphorus, and thallium sulfate rodenticides, wherever children, pets, or food could reach them. Sheds and garages with rodent harborage must be ratproofed, raised off the ground, or razed under § 15-69, though the Director cannot force that work unless rodents have actually been found there.