Prince William County, VA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Prince William County adopted its rodent-control standard through the Building Maintenance Code, enacted under the authority of Virginia Code § 36-105, one of the specific state statutes a Dillon Rule county needs before it can regulate property maintenance at all. Section 5-92 adopts, by reference and 'mutatis mutandis,' the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code Part III, Chapter 34 of the International Building Code, and the International Property Maintenance Code, along with all of their future amendments, meaning Prince William automatically picks up updated editions without a new ordinance.

The county's building official, appointed by the county executive, serves as the code official and local enforcement officer under § 5-94. 5, 'Rodent harborage,' is one of them, alongside related sections like accumulation of rubbish and garbage and infestation. When a property owner doesn't correct a rodent harborage condition after a notice of violation, the building official may issue a civil summons: $100 for the first summons, $350 for each one after that, though the same violation can't be ticketed more than once in any ten-day period and the total for one set of facts is capped at $4,000.

An owner can instead be prosecuted criminally under § 5-95(a), which carries a misdemeanor fine set by Virginia Code § 36-106 and a court order to abate the rodent condition within six months of conviction.