Rock Hill, SC Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Rock Hill does not run a freestanding, citywide rodent-control ordinance; the rule lives inside the residential rental registration and inspection article, Chapter 10, Article X. Section 10-602 defines a 'violation' as noncompliance with any of a table of International Property Maintenance Code categories the city has adopted for rental housing, and one line item is Pest Elimination: units shall be kept free from insect and rodent infestation, with the companion Infestation standard requiring that no rodent or insect infestation is evident and that proper precautions have been taken to prevent reinfestation.

Because infestation is not one of the fast-track conditions listed in § 10-608(b), such as failed heating or blocked egress, a code official who finds it during an inspection issues a 30-day notice of violation under § 10-608(c) rather than the more severe ten-day 'unfit for habitation' order. If a first re-inspection after 30 days still shows the problem, the city issues a 30-day warning; if a second re-inspection still finds it uncorrected, the unit's rental registration is revoked and, if vacant, the unit must stay vacant until the infestation is resolved.

The rule applies only to registered rental units, not to owner-occupied homes, and enforcement runs through the department of neighborhood services rather than through animal control or environmental health.