Your neighbors have cockroaches that are crawling into your apartment. Where to complain? You need to write a complaint to the management company and other authorities, and then collect all the documents and file a lawsuit. Organize a collective struggle, shape public opinion.
Something has happened to you. Cockroaches from your neighbors have come running into your clean, beautiful home. This happened because the neighbor rented out his apartment to strangers, who created unsanitary conditions. What to do? Where to run? Who should I complain to? The neighbor makes money from his property, but you suffer financially and morally! Are there any legislative tools to protect yourself in such a situation? How to defend your right to comfortable living in an apartment building. Contact the society for the protection of the rights of consumers of housing and communal services.
How to understand that cockroaches are coming to you from your neighbors?
Yours is perfectly clean. You never leave food out overnight or in the public domain. If you accidentally spill something, you wipe it up immediately. Wash dishes immediately after eating. You love to do spring cleaning on weekends. All items in your bathroom and toilet are polished to a shine. You regularly disinfect all common areas. You use the Mole product in your sinks and you can’t even imagine that the water won’t quickly wash away any dirt and grease in the sink. You do everything to ensure that an ideal, almost hospital frequency reigns in your home! No insects have the slightest chance of surviving after settling with you. And suddenly..
- Oh God!!! You catch a cockroach in the kitchen.
- Where did he come from?
- You may have brought it home from work if your office is infested with cockroaches.
- Perhaps you brought it from a restaurant, or from a cafe if you like to have your business lunch in catering establishments.
- No!!" Are you sure that the cockroach came to you from your neighbors?
Do not rush to blame your neighbors for the fact that the cockroach came from them. Just start fighting cockroaches right away, and at the same time monitor everything that happens in your apartment.
Residential and multi-family residential buildings present a unique challenge for property owners seeking to prevent pest infestations and respond to pest problems as they arise. In this day and age, it is simply not realistic to keep buildings pest-free in the long term.
With multiple groups of tenants and residents coming and going from apartment buildings at all times of the day, tracking exactly where and when pests are entering is nearly impossible.
That's why the best practice is to implement regular, disciplined pest control methods throughout the year, which will help minimize the temptation for pests to take up residence with you.
Where are they crawling from?
The reason cockroaches appear where there were none before is their natural migration:
- having multiplied, they felt crowded in their neighbors’ territory, and they flocked to you;
- the neighbors declared war on the uninvited guests, and the surviving part of the population urgently moved through the ventilation ducts and cracks in the floor to new places;
- the scout is hiding in purchases brought from the supermarket, and if it is a female, then a brood of parasites is inevitable;
- someone received a package from an online store located in a distant, hot country, where everything is very cheap, but sanitation is not so good;
- someone likes to travel and stay in inexpensive (!) hotels, hostels, etc. and leaves the house full of things brought from the trip unattended for a long time;
- someone lent someone an item that they took on a voyage and returned without washing it, and with it the female parasite.
Watch a video about why cockroaches appear in an apartment or house:
How to protect yourself
Prevention is your best defense. Cockroaches are resilient to any attack and can become resistant to many insecticides, especially those found on the shelves of your local hardware store. In fact, failure to properly get rid of cockroaches can make the problem worse.
The best defense against cockroaches is to first make sure there are no cockroaches in your home, and if there are any, make sure they can be dealt with quickly.
Cut off cockroaches' access to water
Pests look for only three basic needs, usually in the following order: water, food and shelter. Water is the very first thing most cockroaches will look for when looking for a new home. This makes keeping standing water and humidity at a minimum level absolutely critical to any effective pest control method.
Spaces that are most likely to suffer from excessive moisture include bathrooms, utility rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, janitorial rooms, and laundry rooms. In these areas, you should be especially careful to check for leaks or puddles of water that could attract pests.
Keep your space clean
Cockroaches are usually ready and can wait a while to find the food and shelter they are looking for. That's why just cleaning every now and then is not enough to keep your apartments pest-free forever.
It is necessary to maintain cleanliness in high-traffic areas, food preparation areas, and bathrooms. You also need to take out the trash every day. You need to understand which areas are most likely to attract pests and how to best prevent crumbs and debris from accumulating.
Treat adjacent rooms
Prevent cross contamination. Identifying and preventing the integration of cockroaches in an apartment is difficult enough, and their removal can be doubly difficult. This is because cockroaches that you exterminate in one place may simply move their activity to another room or to neighbors with each attempt at extermination.
That is why it is so important to block their way from all units adjacent to the contaminated area.
By cutting off all available escape routes, apartment building owners can make it much more difficult for even a single cockroach to survive and greatly increase the likelihood of keeping your property free of pests.
Monitoring is regular and scrupulous
No matter how thorough your cleaning and pest control process may be, all that hard work won't have much effect if you don't regularly monitor and test your cockroach removal process.
By focusing your full attention on pest prevention throughout the year, you dramatically increase your chances of identifying and promptly intervening to stop a pest infestation long before cockroaches have a chance to take hold.
It is also important to analyze the results of pest control to understand which methods are effective and which are not.
How to solve the problem on your own
If you don’t want to screw your neighbors, if you don’t know where to complain about your neighbors’ cockroaches, you can try to solve the problem by disinfesting the entire house. This option is possible if the residents of the house where the pest outbreak is located allow service specialists to carry it out. Indeed, in accordance with the law, such measures can only be carried out with a court order.
In order not to wait for long court hearings, a good solution is to order the services of disinfection professionals. This requires the unity of residents so that specialists treat as much of the area as possible with parasites. This way a positive result will be achieved.
Insect entry points
Cockroaches can also enter through pipes. Often in an apartment building, a cockroach infestation in one apartment can quickly spread to others because the water supply system connects the apartments. They can quickly move from one apartment to another.
Cockroaches have also been known to get in from sewer drains in the basement or other areas.
Cockroaches can also get inside your home through small openings.
If there is a place where utilities such as pipes or electrical wires pass through the wall and leave open areas outside, then for the cockroach it is like an open door inviting him to visit. Any of these channels is enough to penetrate inside the house, into the walls, and then begin to multiply from neighbor to neighbor.
Prussians love to live in cluttered apartments
If you are not very careful, then this is most likely the cause of the insect infestation.
Carry out a thorough cleaning and wipe all surfaces with water and bleach or lemon juice.
You need to scatter boric acid powder along the walls; you can buy it at a pharmacy or hardware store. The substance acts as a poison on insects: settling on the shell and legs, the acid slowly penetrates the digestive system of the pest. It does not kill immediately, so it will take several days for the effect to be noticeable.
The advantage of this method is that the cockroaches themselves spread the powder throughout the insect area.
Neighbors are poisoning cockroaches: what to do
- It is clear that it is better if you and your neighbors act together in the fight against cockroaches. If you are interested in ensuring that victory remains yours, follow the proverb “saving drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves.” In other words, don’t be lazy, take on the role of organizer for sanitizing the entrance.
- But if it happened that your neighbors poisoned the cockroaches without warning you, and hordes of red, mustachioed Prussians have already entered your apartment, brazenly climbing through the ventilation, crawling out from under the neighbors’ doors and crawling with direct fire to your doors, you need something urgently stop this avalanche.
- The first thing you can do is set traps. The choice of all these products on the market is huge. Before you run to the store, you might want to make some repellents from what you have at home. There are many folk tricks and tips on how to repel cockroaches. At a minimum, pour some white paint near the communications along which uninvited residents are barging in on you.
- All poison must first be placed near sockets and risers, because it is along these paths that cockroaches, crazy with fear, will crawl towards you. They will be weak and disoriented, so you can deal with them quite easily at this point. The main thing is to let the cockroaches understand by smells or sound signals that your apartment will not become a place of salvation for them, and perhaps poses even more danger and threat to life. Ideally, you should immediately take time off or a vacation and make micro repairs to cover up all the cracks and cracks. All possible entry points for cockroaches must be sealed.
- It would also be good to immediately resort to the help of professionals and call specialists who will treat your apartment with cold fog. It will be cooler if they simultaneously carry out barrier protection measures.
- The most reliable way is to combine hot fog, disinfection and barrier protection. Of course it is expensive. But, believe me, your health, your nerves, your comfort, your sense of security are worth much more. Even if at the moment you don’t have the money to protect yourself as much as possible from cockroaches. We recommend borrowing from friends; it is extremely important for you to put up the strongest and most reliable defense in this war.
Kindergarten for children or Prussians
Your child went to kindergarten, but together with friendly teachers he met “stasiks”? There are cockroaches in the kindergarten, where can I complain? Of course, start small - this is the head of a preschool institution. But this should not be a written request, but a written statement. If the Prussians are not destroyed, then a statement is already written to the Education Department.
What to do if neighbors do not want to get rid of cockroaches
Have you decided to get rid of cockroaches yourself? Keep your neighbors updated on your pest control efforts.
You can simply be honest and inform your neighbors about your planned pest prevention in the apartment. But this is not enough. Your goal is not to build trust, but to significantly reduce the likelihood that pests will temporarily hide with neighbors and then return to you again.
It's better for you to do everything synchronously and at the same time. The fight against cockroaches will be successful only in alliance with all neighbors. It is better to poison cockroaches in the entire house at once, at least for all residents from one entrance.
It is quite understandable why some neighbors, for example antisocial elements, may want to maintain pest problems because they have neither the desire, nor the means, nor the strength, nor the ability to fight cockroaches. Take matters into your own hands. Pay for sanitary treatment not only of your apartment, but also of your neighbors’ cockroaches. Believe me, for your nerves and further comfortable living, this is the best option. Use all your diplomatic talents to convince your neighbors to let the sanitation service into your apartment. Help your neighbors put things in order and do a general cleaning in their neglected home. If they have any conscience and self-respect left, they will be grateful for your help.
If your neighbors categorically do not want to get rid of cockroaches, then try to team up with other normal neighbors and still talk to the residents from the “shalman”. As a last resort, you can involve the district inspector in the conversation. It is better to contact the police in writing. Let's hope that the matter will be limited to conversations.
Our promotions
When ordering several services at once, our company provides a promotion for treating several premises. For example, the price will become more favorable if you order the extermination of insects in several infested apartments at once. Such conditions are discussed with our manager when placing an order. These conditions may include both a discount for a wholesale order and the provision of additional services - one-time or on an ongoing basis. Please note that we do not have an additional paid warranty. The warranty applies to any type of work, and its duration depends solely on the characteristics of the area being treated and the means used.
Which services to contact and complain to?
Legal regulation of the provision of housing and communal services is determined by the norms of civil and housing legislation.
In the case when utility services are provided to a citizen who uses them for personal, household purposes not related to business activities, the relevant relations are subject to the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation of 02/07/1992 No. 2300-1 “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, relating to providing consumers with the necessary and reliable information about services, service providers, compensation for moral damages, legal protection.
Who to write a complaint to
- If the neighbors do not listen to your comments and do not want to get rid of cockroaches, if they are not adequate and unclean, then you will have to fight with them. To do this, it is better to unite with other neighbors and try to collectively influence them because, by and large, cockroaches are a problem for the entire entrance.
- On the other hand, by enlisting collective indignation, you will be able to quickly achieve results in official instances
- You can appeal to 4 authorities with complaints.
- You need to start with the local inspector. It is his direct responsibility to check your written statement and conduct a preventative conversation with your neighbor. He must issue a warning. If you continue to fight, this document will be useful in court.
- You can submit a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor in free form. They will definitely provide you with a written response about the measures taken. The main thing is that you must describe what independent preventive measures you took and prove that they did not bring any results.
- The SES is the main body that must neutralize living quarters from parasites and prevent infection, including cockroaches. If you are going to write an application to the SES, you need to team up with two more apartment owners, print out this application in two copies, take it personally to the office of the sanitary and epidemiological station and give it for signature. The second copy must be retained until appropriate measures have been taken.
- You can submit your application electronically. To do this, you need to go to the official website of the SES in your city.
- The court is the last resort if your previous actions have had no effect. But usually the case rarely comes to court. If you want to evict your neighbors from your apartment, then you will need a very large number of documents, expert opinions and definitely the help of a lawyer.
- There is also another station with which it makes sense to discuss problems: the management company. It is her responsibility to keep the basement, attic, and your entryways clean and sanitary. She is obliged to carry out sanitation there free of charge upon your signal. If they try to collect money from you for pest control in public places, this is illegal.
Naturally, you carry out pest control in your own apartment at your own expense.
Where to complain about cockroaches in the entrance
In most cases, high-rise buildings are serviced by a management company (housing office). An agreement is concluded with the organization, which spells out the responsibilities of the residents and the organization. If the document indicates a point where the management company is obliged to carry out deratization and disinfestation, management must be notified of the problem that has arisen.
If there is no such clause, the burden falls on the shoulders of the residents themselves; there is nowhere to complain. A similar situation is if the house is not serviced by the housing office at all, the community, whose members are the residents of the apartments, is responsible for the improvement and cleanliness of the entrances.
In a situation where the management company is supposed to carry out pest control, but refuses to do so, they write a complaint to the SES, Rospotrebnadzor or the prosecutor's office.
Important!
If there are cockroaches at the entrance, you need to contact law enforcement agencies if there is evidence of inaction of the relevant authorities. The problem will be resolved only after appropriate checks are carried out and a court decision is made. The complaint must be a collective one, signed by all residents of the house or most of them.
What do cockroaches do while the trial is going on?
If you go to court, it will take a lot of time and “While a fairy tale takes a long time to tell, the matter is quickly done” - your cockroaches can spread throughout your apartment. Even if the court decides to evict your neighbors, it will not evict the cockroaches from you by its decision. You may unwittingly become the source of unsanitary conditions and find yourself in the position of a neighbor with whom you fought. Defeating cockroaches is not easy, no need to waste time.
I raised my glass and there was a cockroach
This happens, but if there are cockroaches in a cafe, where can you complain? The sequence of actions is as follows:
- contact the administrator;
- leave the complaint in the book (it’s better to photograph it so that the page doesn’t get torn off);
- If there is no response, visit the SEC to have the establishment checked for violations of sanitary standards.
