Barrie tenants ask us this constantly, and they are routinely told the wrong answer.
Under Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord is required to maintain a rental unit in a good state of repair and fit for habitation. Pest control falls within that obligation and the property standards bylaw. It is not a discretionary amenity, and it does not stop being the landlord’s responsibility because the tenant is the one who noticed.
That is the legal position. What decides how it actually goes is how you handle the reporting.
Report it in writing, and keep the copy
A phone call is easy to forget and impossible to prove. Email or text, and keep the thread.
Include:
- What you have seen, specifically. Droppings under the sink, scratching in the ceiling at night, suspected bed bug bites overnight with spots on the mattress seam. Species matters, and so does the evidence.
- When it started and whether it is getting worse.
- Dated photographs. Take them now, even if they feel unnecessary.
- A clear request to arrange treatment, with a date by which you would like a response.
Keep it factual and unemotional. The document is the point.
The multi-unit problem nobody explains
If you are in an apartment, a townhouse block, or a converted house with more than one unit, this is the part that matters most.
Treating one unit in isolation usually fails. Mice, cockroaches and bed bugs all move through shared walls, ceiling voids, plumbing chases and service penetrations. Treating your unit while the one next door goes untreated means the population simply moves back once the treatment breaks down.
So when you report it, ask in writing that adjacent units, and the units directly above and below, be inspected. Landlords sometimes resist this because it multiplies the cost — but the alternative is paying for repeated failed treatments, which is more expensive and takes months longer.
If you know neighbours are seeing the same thing, say so in the report. Several units reporting at once is much harder to treat as an isolated complaint.
Do not quietly pay for it yourself
It is tempting, especially with bed bugs, where people want it dealt with immediately and privately. Two reasons not to:
- It weakens your position. Once you have paid, you have made it your problem, and getting the building treated properly becomes harder.
- It often does not work. In a multi-unit building the source may not be in your unit at all. You can pay for a perfectly good treatment and be re-infested from next door within weeks.
Report it, in writing, first.
Access and preparation
Landlords generally need to give proper written notice before entering to carry out work, and treatment usually requires preparation from you — clearing under sinks, laundering and bagging textiles, moving furniture off the walls.
Do the preparation properly. Failed preparation is one of the most common reasons a treatment does not work, and it is the one part of this process entirely within your control.
If nothing happens
Keep the paper trail going. Follow up in writing, restate what you reported and when, and note that no action has been taken. If it continues to be ignored, the Landlord and Tenant Board is the route — and your documentation is what makes that route usable.
One thing worth saying plainly
There is a stigma attached to bed bugs and cockroaches that has nothing to do with how clean anyone’s home is. It stops people reporting, and delayed reporting is exactly what turns one unit’s problem into a building-wide one.
Report it early. It is the landlord’s obligation, it is not a reflection on you, and every week of delay makes it harder to solve.