The Sorschers had rented a house for the year.
One day, Mrs. Sorscher noticed a wasp in the house. She alerted her husband, who was able to kill it.
The following day, Mrs. Sorscher noticed another two wasps. “This is very strange,” she said to her husband.
“There must be a nest somewhere,” Mr. Sorscher replied. “I’ll look outside the house.”
Mr. Sorscher walked around the house. Indeed, he found that wasps had built a nest under an eve of the house.
“I found the nest,” Mr. Sorscher told his wife. “We’ll have to call the exterminator.”
“Please do,” she replied. “I’m very worried about this. I don’t want somebody stung by them!”
“I’ll notify the landlord also,” said Mr. Sorscher. “He has to know about this. Also, he may have an exterminator that he works with.”
Mr. Sorscher called the landlord. “We discovered that a swarm of wasps made a nest on the outside of the house,” he said. “Do you have the phone number of an exterminator?”
“That’s strange – I’ve never had this before,” said the landlord.
I do have an exterminator, though. You’re welcome to call him, but at your expense.”
“Why should we have to pay the exterminator?” replied Mr. Sorscher. “We can’t go on living like this; it’s potentially dangerous. The house is not usable as is.”
“I understand that there is a problem – I’m not belittling it,” said the landlord. “But the problem is not with the house itself; it’s something external.”
“I don’t agree,” argued Mr. Sorscher. “The nest is attached to the house and affects its usage.”
The two approached Rabbi Dayan and asked, “Who is responsible to pay the exterminator?”
“The Mishna (B.B. 101b) addresses the respective responsibilities of the landlord and tenant for repairs to a rental property,” replied Rabbi Dayan. “The rule of thumb stated is that the landlord is responsible for repairs that require professional service.”
The Rishonim further qualify that the landlord is only liable for professional repairs that are considered significant for proper dwelling (C.M. 314:1).
Exterminating a wasp nest would seemingly fall under this category.
However, the poskim limit the landlord’s liability to repairs of the rental unit itself, not when some external source limits the usage. For example, the Mishna (B.M. 78a) teaches that if a person rented a donkey, but along the way the king conscripted it for his use, we consider this the misfortune of the renter, since the donkey itself is not defective or affected, only its usage. Therefore, the owner has no liability to compensate the renter for the loss of use (C.M. 310:1; Sma 310:2 Nesivos 310:1, 321:1).
Similarly, here, if the need for extermination is due to external sources, such as if the wasps attached their nest to the outside of the house, we cannot hold the landlord liable to pay for the extermination. Nonetheless, if the problem existed before the rental began, the landlord would be liable, since in that case he did not provide a house fit for living (Emek HaMishpat, Sechirus 54:2; Hayashar v’Hatov, vol. 21, pp. 129-131).
However, if the nest was built in a hole in the wall, etc., so that the problem can be attributed to some defect in the building itself, the landlord would be liable.
Regardless, if there was a clause in the contract or a common practice regarding extermination we would follow it, but there does not seem to be a common practice about this.”
“Based on this, the landlord cannot be made to pay for the extermination,” concluded Rabbi Dayan, “unless the nest can be attributed to a defect in the house, such as hole or crack in the wall.”
Verdict: The landlord is responsible for repairs that require professional service and are significant for proper dwelling, but if the problem is due to external sources, he is not liable. Thus, he is not liable for extermination unless attributable to a defect in the structure.
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This article is intended for learning purposes and cannot be used for final halachic decision. There are also issues of dina d’malchusa to consider in actual cases.
