This is the question we are asked more than any other, and there is no single legal answer that settles it. What decides it in practice is your lease, the type of problem, and how you raise it. Here is how it actually plays out.
Note. This page describes common practice in Ho Chi Minh City rentals. It is not legal advice. If a large sum or a deposit dispute is involved, get advice from a lawyer, not from a pest control company.
Start with the lease, and expect it to be silent
Most residential leases here say nothing about pest control. A minority say the tenant is responsible for "cleanliness and hygiene" — which landlords sometimes read as covering pests. Very few address termites, which is unfortunate, because termites are the one problem where the answer is usually clear-cut in the tenant's favour.
If your lease is silent, the argument turns on whether the problem is structural or housekeeping.
Structural versus housekeeping
This distinction is not written in law, but it is how the conversation actually goes, and it is fair. Use it.
| Problem | Usually | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Termites in timber or structure | Landlord | Damage to the building itself. A tenant cannot cause a subterranean termite colony, and cannot be expected to pay to protect an asset they do not own. |
| Rodents entering through gaps in the building | Landlord | The fix is sealing holes in the fabric of the property — a repair, not a cleaning task. |
| Mosquitoes breeding in shared drainage or the garden | Landlord | The source is outside the tenant's control, on the landlord's land. |
| Pests already present when you moved in | Landlord | The property was not delivered in a fit condition. Raise it in the first weeks, in writing. |
| Cockroaches after months of living there | Usually shared | Could be your housekeeping, could be a dry floor drain or a neighbouring unit. A survey that identifies the source settles it. |
| Ants attracted to food left out | Tenant | Housekeeping. |
| Pests brought in with your own furniture or boxes | Tenant | Source came with you. |
Serviced apartments are different
If you are in a serviced apartment or an apartment-hotel, pest control inside the unit is almost always the operator's responsibility and is already priced into your rent. Ask the front desk before you pay anyone. We regularly get calls from residents who were about to pay for something they were already entitled to.
How to raise it so it works
- Put it in writing, in the same message thread you use for everything else. A message on Zalo or email is enough. Verbal requests vanish.
- Send photographs. Mud tubes on a wall, droppings, a gnawed pipe, a photo of the gap under a door. Evidence changes the conversation faster than description does.
- Name the problem as a building problem where it is one. "There are termites in the staircase timber" lands differently from "there are insects in the house".
- Offer a route. Landlords often stall because they do not know who to call. "I can arrange a survey and send you the quote before anything is done" removes that obstacle. We are happy to quote to you and address the invoice to your landlord.
- Ask for a written answer before you pay. If you pay first and ask later, you are negotiating for a refund instead of an authorisation.
If your landlord refuses
You have three realistic options: pay and treat it as a cost of living somewhere you like; pay and ask to offset it against rent, in writing and agreed in advance; or, for a serious structural issue such as termites, treat it as a factor in whether you renew. What we would not recommend is deducting from rent without written agreement — in a deposit dispute at the end of a lease, that tends to go badly.
What a survey costs
Our survey is free and comes with a written quote you can forward to a landlord unchanged. See the price list for what treatments themselves cost, so you know the order of magnitude before you start the conversation.
Reading in Vietnamese?
Global Pest Control is the English-language site of Khử Trùng Toàn Cầu. These pages cover the same work for Vietnamese-speaking customers, and carry the full price tables.