The short answer
Responsibility for pests inside a private flat mainly comes down to what your tenancy agreement says, and where the agreement is silent, general practice tends to look at the cause — an occasional, everyday pest sighting is treated very differently from an infestation traced back to a building's common areas. This isn't legal advice; your actual responsibility depends on your tenancy terms and the specific facts.
How is responsibility for pests inside a flat generally split?
Just like mould, there's no ordinance that spells out, pest by pest, who pays. As CLIC (the Community Legal Information Centre) puts it, repair obligations are mainly a matter of private contract, and there's generally no implied duty under a tenancy agreement compelling either party to carry out repairs. Where the agreement is silent, general practice tends to look at the cause — following a similar framework to our mould responsibility guide:
| Situation | Who this tends to fall to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday, occasional pest activity (a cockroach or two in summer, for example) | Usually within the tenant's day-to-day upkeep | Hong Kong's climate makes some pest activity a normal part of living here, and this is generally tied to routine housekeeping |
| An infestation already present when the tenant moved in | Tends toward the landlord's responsibility | It predates the tenant's use of the flat, so it's harder to attribute to anything the tenant did |
| Something caused by how the tenant uses the flat (leaving food waste out, clutter that draws pests) | Tends toward the tenant's responsibility | Same logic as the "tenant-caused" mould scenario — the kind of thing that most needs objective evidence to settle |
| Traced to the building structure or a common area (a shared drain feeding a rodent run, a wasp nest under a rooftop eave) | Tends toward the landlord's or management company's responsibility | A flat's interior is where the landlord/tenant split applies — common areas run on a different track |
This table reflects general practice, not a legal conclusion — your actual tenancy terms always come first.
Which situations tend to end up as disputes?
Two situations account for most of the friction. First, whether an infestation was already there when the tenant moved in or only showed up afterward — without a pre-move-in inspection record, it's hard to establish that timeline, which is exactly why we suggest new tenants do a quick check before moving in (see our moving-in checklist for the approach). Second, disputes over where the pest is actually coming from — for instance, whether rodents or cockroaches are entering through a shared drainage system or a refuse room, which touches on the building's common areas rather than the flat's own responsibility split; see Building Pest Complaints for how that side works. Both of these are really factual disputes rather than legal ones — who's responsible is a legal question Averta can't answer for you, but an independent inspection record can help establish facts like where the source is and how bad it actually is.
Want to avoid a back-and-forth with your landlord or tenant? Here's what you can do
A few practical steps that don't require a legal judgment call: check whether your tenancy agreement mentions pests or pest control at all; photograph or film the infestation and its location, with a date; if you suspect the source is a building common area, notify the management office and get it on record (the management company handles common areas — see our building pest complaints guide); and if there's a dispute or you need a written factual record, an independent inspection can help — Averta's home inspection is HK$350, fully credited if you book, and we can help determine whether the source is inside the flat or in a shared area. Landlords managing multiple units, or property managers, may also want to look at our property management pest programme.