Pest Infestation (Schädlingsbefall)

Typical pests

Most common in neglected apartments: cockroaches, pantry moths, dried-fruit moths, silverfish, larder beetles, fruit flies and mice. In attics and cellars, clothes moths, woodworm and occasionally rats are added. In apartments where birds land on the window ledge, pigeon mites also appear.

Bed bugs are a category of their own. They are hard to spot, spread easily via furniture and textiles, and require professional treatment — a clearance carried out without treating them first distributes them through the whole building and sometimes into further properties.

Why the sequence matters

If an infested apartment is cleared without pre-treatment, the pests escape through service shafts, sockets and gaps into the neighboring apartments. A local problem becomes a building-wide one — at considerably higher cost to the property.

The correct order is therefore: establish the infestation, then treat it or at least seal the routes of spread, then clear. The material is packed and sealed on site and carried out closed, not openly through the stairwell.

Responsibility and costs

In rented properties the landlord is in principle responsible for remedying an infestation, because it constitutes a defect of the rented object (Mangel der Mietsache — a fault that makes the property less usable than the tenancy agreement promises). If the tenant culpably caused the infestation — through severe neglect, for instance — they can be made liable for the cost. In every case, report an infestation to the property management immediately and in writing.

Reporting it correctly as a tenant

Send the notification to the property management by email or registered letter, with the date, a description and photographs, and keep a copy. That written record is what establishes the landlord's obligation to act — and it protects you later if the cause is disputed. Do not start any treatment on your own initiative before the property management has responded, unless the situation is urgent; unauthorized measures can end up being charged to you.