Riverside, CA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

RMC Section 6.22.010 requires every person possessing a rodent-infested place to "at once proceed and continue in good faith to endeavor to exterminate and destroy the rodents, by poisoning, trapping, and in other appropriate means." The City may inspect any property to check compliance, but Section 6.22.020 limits inspection of an occupied dwelling, hotel, or rooming house to between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. When infestation is found, the Code Enforcement Division issues a written notice to abate under Section 6.22.030, giving the owner ten days to begin extermination; the notice is served personally or by registered mail plus a ten-day posting on the property (Section 6.22.040).

An owner who disputes the finding has ten days from service to file a written appeal with the City Clerk for a City Council hearing (Section 6.22.050); if no appeal is filed, the infestation is conclusively established. Once the compliance deadline in Section 6.22.060 passes without action, Section 6.22.070 lets the City "at once cause the rodents to be exterminated and destroyed." The City then bills the owner for costs exceeding $15.00; unpaid bills 45 days after billing become delinquent and, per Section 6.22.080, form a lien on the property, confirmed through a City Clerk report, a City Council hearing under Section 6.22.100, and filing with the County Auditor for collection on the property tax roll (Sections 6.22.090, 6.22.110, 6.22.130). Section 6.22.160 also lets the City order a building rodent-proofed, in whole or in part, when it constitutes a harborage.