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It's a duplex, landlord lives here too, next to the house is a nightmare, cluttered shed, misc. crap everywhere belonging to the landlord, he leaves open seed bags from feeding the birds and wildlife in the garage (which our unit is above).
Mouse sightings:
1. dead mouse in my laundry, ruined clothing.
2. Cat killed in our unit
3. Another killed in our unit by cat 30 days about after notifying landlord of issue and our placing personally purchased mouse poison and placing it in our unit, the neighbors unit, the basement, AND outside by a nest in HIS cluttered shed.
4. Nest of at least 5 in his shed.
6. Neighbors trash (live mouse, released into wild)
This problem began about 2 months ago, we had never had the issue before.
What can I legally do to convince him to take care of the issue?
He's a pretty slick dude (he has harassed my poor neighbor and entered both our homes without permission according to her) and avoids the police like the best of them...
Can I withhold rent until I see traps? Can I deduct damages for what the mice have done because of his neglect?
Moving is not really much of an option right now, we are planning on buying a house of our own come late October-Dec.....
Your problem may be establishing that this is an "infestation". Be very careful about withholding rent as it's not something you can do arbitrarily. As far as the damages to your clothing, this should be covered by renter's insurance.