Who pays the exterminator in Quebec, the tenant or the landlord

The short answer, in the vast majority of cases the landlord pays

The landlord pays, and this is not a grey area. In Quebec, the lessor must deliver the dwelling in good habitable condition, keep it that way for the whole lease, and comply with health and safety laws, according to the Tribunal administratif du logement. An infestation falls squarely inside that duty.

On its page about unsanitary conditions, the Tribunal names cockroaches, bed bugs, ants, rats and mice among the situations that open legal remedies to the tenant. An infested dwelling is not a compliant dwelling, so the exterminator bill follows the legal obligation, not whoever happens to spot the first insect.

The tenant does not have to pay for treatment, choose the company, or negotiate with the neighbours. The tenant does have two duties that carry real weight when ignored, notifying the landlord without delay and cooperating with the preparation of the unit. We come back to that below, because it is exactly where the bill can change sides.

For bed bugs specifically, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec goes further. Because the origin of an infestation is very hard to determine, the INSPQ states that the landlord is responsible for exterminating the entire building and covers the cost. Not just the unit where the first bug was found.

What the Tribunal administratif du logement says

The Tribunal administratif du logement gives a tenant four remedies when a dwelling is unsanitary, and they can be combined in a single application.

• Lease cancellation. The tenant asks to be released from the lease when the unit is no longer habitable.
• An order to carry out work. The Tribunal orders the landlord to have the treatment done, on a set timeline.
• A rent reduction. It covers the period during which the infestation reduced the enjoyment of the dwelling.
• Damages. Bedding, furniture and clothing that had to be thrown out, expenses incurred, trouble and inconvenience.

Since 21 February 2024, the Tribunal can also award punitive damages when the dwelling became unfit for habitation through the lessor's negligence, as the Tribunal sets out. The distinction matters, punitive damages do not repair a loss, they sanction a behaviour.

One more rule few landlords know, the lessor may not re-rent the dwelling until it has become fit for habitation again. Signing a new lease on a unit that is still infested simply sets up the next dispute.

When a tenant can be held responsible

The tenant pays when the infestation can be traced to them, or when they stop the treatment from working. Éducaloi lists four situations in which a tenant can be held responsible.

• Refusing to cooperate with treatment. Not letting the technician in, refusing a second visit, ignoring the instructions.
• Bringing pests in through negligence. A mattress picked up on the street, second-hand furniture brought in without checking.
• Unsanitary conditions caused by the tenant. Accumulated garbage, food left out, dishes never washed.
• Clutter that blocks treatment. A unit where the technician cannot reach the baseboards or the perimeter of the rooms.

These are not hypotheticals. Éducaloi cites a Tribunal decision of 14 March 2025, in a cockroach file, where the tenant was evicted and ordered to pay roughly $1,500. And a decision of 6 May 2025, in a bed bug file, where roughly $1,725 in damages was awarded to the landlord.

The dividing line is easy to remember. The landlord pays for the treatment, the tenant pays for the consequences of their own failures. Hiding an infestation for months, refusing access, or preparing nothing are three ways to shift the bill. Our bed bug treatment preparation guide spells out exactly what is expected from the tenant.

What a landlord risks by doing nothing

Far more than the price of a treatment. In June 2019, the Régie du logement, now the Tribunal administratif du logement, ordered a Montreal landlord to pay $19,424, including $8,000 in punitive damages, Radio-Canada reported on 11 July 2019. The reason, he had failed to disclose infestations he knew about before the lease was signed.

Then there is the municipal side. According to the municipal information sheet on by-law 03-096 on the sanitation, maintenance and safety of dwelling units, fines range from $200 to $10,000 for a natural person depending on the offence and on repeat offences, and double that for a legal person. That information sheet is dated V.2018.01 and comes from one borough, so the amounts and deadlines that actually apply should be confirmed with the borough concerned.

The heaviest mechanism is not the fine. If the landlord fails to act, the City can have the work carried out at the landlord's expense. The claim becomes a prior claim and can be secured by a legal hypothec on the building. In plain terms, the debt sticks to the property and shows up in the next sale file.

On timing, the same information sheet mentions, after a formal notice, a reasonable delay of 10 days for quick action and 30 days for major work. A landlord who answers within the week with a dated exterminator report avoids almost everything above.

What the tenant should do, in order

Six steps, in this order. Skipping the first one usually costs extra months of treatment.

1. Do not treat it yourself. The City of Montreal is explicit, a tenant must not attempt to treat the problem alone. Hardware store products scatter bed bugs into neighbouring units and make the technician's job harder.
2. Notify the landlord immediately and in writing. Email or text, it does not matter, but keep a dated record. It is the cornerstone of any later claim.
3. Document everything. Dated photos of the insects, the bites, the droppings. Our article on the signs of a bed bug infestation and the one on cockroaches in an apartment help you identify what you are looking at.
4. Send a formal notice. If nothing moves, a registered letter with a clear deadline often unblocks the file within days.
5. Call 311. In Montreal, when the landlord does not act, that is the reflex. According to the municipal information sheet on by-law 03-096, an inspector visits within a maximum of 30 days after a request, and within 48 business hours in an emergency.
6. File an application with the Tribunal. Rent reduction, order to carry out work and damages can all sit in the same application.

One thing never to do, stop paying rent. It is not a recognized remedy and it exposes the tenant to a cancellation application for non-payment. The correct move is a rent reduction application before the Tribunal.

What the building owner should do, in order

A well-prepared landlord settles an infestation in two visits and without a Tribunal file. Here is the sequence.

1. Have the building inspected, not one unit. The City of Montreal states that a landlord informed of an infestation must immediately call a qualified exterminator, and that the exterminator must inspect the entire building.
2. Treat adjacent and connected units, even without a report from them. That is the INSPQ logic, since the origin cannot be determined, the treatment perimeter is the building.
3. Book the second visit right away. The INSPQ puts the interval between the first and second treatment at 2 to 6 weeks. A date in the calendar beats a promise.
4. Send preparation instructions in writing. A tenant who never received clear instructions cannot be blamed for failing to follow them.
5. Keep the evidence. Service reports, dates, products used, invoices, email threads. That file is what defends you if a tenant files an application.
6. Disclose before re-renting. The 2019 decision reported by Radio-Canada turned precisely on an infestation that was known and not disclosed before the lease was signed.

For a portfolio of units, regular monitoring costs less than a crisis. Axion works with building managers across its 57 service areas, and our commercial and property management services page explains how pest management contracts work.

What the law requires in Montreal specifically

Montreal adds an obligation few landlords know about. Under the by-law concerning the sanitation, maintenance and safety of dwelling units 03-096 as amended, the exterminator must report every bed bug intervention to the City within 5 days. The reporting duty sits with the company, but a landlord has every reason to check that the supplier actually does it.

Montreal is not alone. According to CAA-Québec, Montreal, Laval and Longueuil are cities where reporting an infestation is mandatory. A building owner in Laval or Longueuil is in the same position as one in Montreal, and our service area map shows where our technicians travel.

On the tenant side, the Montreal procedure is published in plain terms. Notify the landlord immediately, do not treat the unit yourself, and call 311 if the landlord does not act. Three sentences that sum up most of the split in responsibilities.

One useful clarification for everyone, mandatory reporting is not there to punish anyone. It lets the City track infestation clusters in a neighbourhood, which is also why official statistics understate the real picture.

Why treating a single unit solves nothing

Because bed bugs travel through the building, and because one visit does not kill the eggs. The INSPQ is blunt about it, a single treatment is insufficient, since the half-life of registered insecticides is too short to kill the bugs that hatch from eggs. A second treatment is needed, 2 to 6 weeks after the first.

Montreal data explains why building size changes everything. In its 2019 situation report, based on the 2017 Housing Survey, the Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal reports a declared bed bug prevalence of 1.9 % in buildings of 5 units or fewer, 5.2 % in buildings of 6 to 11 units, and 6.3 % in buildings of 12 units or more. The more doors there are, the more routes an infestation has.

The same report quantifies the gap between tenants and owners. In 2017, 2.8 % of households on the island of Montreal reported a bed bug infestation, roughly 24,000 households. Among tenants prevalence reached 4.0 %, against 0.7 % among owners, close to six times less. It climbed to 8.9 % below $20,000 of family income, against 0.9 % at $60,000 and above. Public health also notes that infestations remain largely under-reported to municipal authorities.

Treating a single unit therefore means paying twice. Once for the treatment that fails, and again when the infestation comes back from next door three months later. Axion inspects the building before treating, for bed bug treatment in Montreal as well as for cockroach control, with CD5 and CD6 certified technicians, products registered by Health Canada and a written guarantee. An inspection and a clear treatment plan beat three improvised visits, and it starts at $99.

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