Normally a house would be condemned for code violations such as incorrect wiring, plumbing or such. even then the violation would be written up and you would be given a time frame in which to correct the violations.
If your tenant has violated the lease agreement by having a pet, when the lease agreement prohibit having a pet, you may evict them for this lease violation.
It might be that you would drive by in a care your tenant do not recognize and take a picture of the cat. You might also consider having a family member not known by your tenant to go by and knock on the door and take a picture of the cat.
You will need evidence the cat is presently there. In addition to the pictures, you might summon the termite exterminator as a witness during the eviction process.
This is reason to have your tenant evicted.
Deciding when roaches were introduced into a house is like which came first the chicken or the egg. Your tenant would say the roaches were in the rental unit when they arrive. You have made the statement that the roaches were not there prior to them moving in and you had no previous roaches prior to them moving in. These are classic statements made by each party.
I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.
"FIGHT ON"
Yes, a health department can condemn a home and order the occupants out.
BUT --- I don't know about Tennessee, but in my state calling the Board of Health is a risky move. It may backfire on you. If the building isn't bad enough for it to be condemned as unfit for human habitation (and it has to be very bad for that to happen), then the health inspector may simply note the outstanding violations and then order you (the landlord) to correct them. The health inspector might even come back with the county wiring inspector, or plumbing inspector.
To make matters worse, in some states you cannot evict a tenant while there are outstanding code violations! These rules were enacted to punish slumlords who kicked out tenants who complained about the conditions, but they apply to everybody. Are you are that the wiring in your rental is up to code?
Also, it is very unlikely that a health inspector will condemn a building simply because of a cockroach infestation. And inspectors know when a landlord is trying to use the health department as a "cat's paw" to get rid of annoying tenants, and many inspectors take offense at being used as a pawn.
So, there are a lot of risks in getting the health department involved. Better to follow the usual course of action to evict them.
It is hard to prove that the cockroaches are their fault. So I would proceed on the basis of their violation of the "no pets" agreement. That is a clear violation. (And not a minor one, either: unless a cat has been declawed, it can do thousands of dollars of damage to woodwork and wallpaper.) You can always casually mention in the eviction complaint that "the cat was observed by an exterminator while he was on the premises to deal with a recent cockroach infestation." The judge can read between the lines . . .
Good luck!
They can, but that is going to cost you more then an eviction ever would and will devalue the property from this point forward. You'll be paying the tenants a big chunk of change.
You won't be able to live in it or rent it until the health department passes the house and you pay all of their fines. The fines will not be cheap either.
Yes you have the right to call them however as others stated they are not likely to condemn if the only problem is roaches.
You have legal grounds to evict them for the unauthorized cat. Serve notice and get them out. Once you clean the place properly & get the exterminator out again the house is no longer unlivable.
Every house has bugs. You hire an exterminator just like everyone does. So you want to condemn this house! And loose the money it is worth?!
For any issues other than the bugs, you resort to the legal eviction process.
Yes.
I live in Tennessee, to start off.
We have rental property next door to my house that we're in charge of. Our current tenants have resided there for almost three years. Recently, we had to pay for an exterminator to come in to spray for their roach-infested home. They brought roaches in (we've NEVER had them before and one of them admitted to having them other places) and I want them gone. They received a written contract, also, stating NO ANIMALS. I have been up to suspicion that they had a cat in, which I was right because the exterminator told us. What I want to know is if I can call the health department to condemn the home because it is infested to the point where it's unlivable as they are also violating contract.
