Pest control in Berlin: what the rules actually say

The first question is public. Does an authority have to know about this. That is answered by the Infektionsschutzgesetz, the federal Protection Against Infection Act, and by the Berlin ordinance issued under it. The second question is private. Who pays, who has to act, and what happens if nobody does. That is answered by the tenancy sections of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, the German Civil Code. The third question is one that surprises almost everyone who moves here. Is this animal allowed to be killed at all. That is answered by the Bundesnaturschutzgesetz and the Tierschutzgesetz, and for several species the answer is no.^{Quelle 2, Quelle 1, Quelle 5, Quelle 18, Quelle 23}

These three questions do not line up neatly. An animal can be reportable and still be the landlord's financial problem. An animal can be harmless in health terms and still be strictly protected. Bed bugs sit at one extreme: no reporting duty anywhere in Berlin, no proven disease transmission, and yet one of the hardest and most expensive infestations to clear. Hornets sit at the other: no health risk in law, no reporting duty, and a fine of up to fifty thousand euros if you destroy a nest without permission.^{Quelle 26, Quelle 21, Quelle 20}

Six German words worth learning first

Gesundheitsamt

The public health office. Every Berlin district has one, and it sits inside the district administration. This is where a reportable infestation is reported.

Bezirksamt

The district administration. Berlin is governed in twelve districts, and for pest matters the district office, not the Senate, is the authority you deal with.

Fachkraft

A qualified pest control specialist as defined in law. This is not a marketing word. Section 2 paragraph 4 of the Berlin ordinance lists exactly which examinations count.

Mangel

A defect of the rented property. An infestation is a Mangel, and that single classification is what puts the obligation on the landlord.

Mangelanzeige

The notice of defect you send to the landlord. Section 536c of the Civil Code requires it without delay, and your other rights depend on it.

Betriebskosten

Operating costs, settled once a year in the Nebenkostenabrechnung. Some pest control belongs here and some does not, which is where most disputes start.

^{Quelle 1, Quelle 8, Quelle 12}

The current rules come from the Verordnung zur Bekämpfung von Gesundheitsschädlingen, dated 22 April 2026 and in force since 9 May 2026. It replaced the version from 2011. Section 1 lists the animals it applies to, and the list is short: house rats and brown rats, pharaoh ants, synanthropic cockroaches, synanthropic flies, the Asian tiger mosquito, and any newly appearing health pest. If your animal is not on that list, this ordinance does not apply to you at all.^{Quelle 1}

For rats the duty is real and it is immediate. Section 5 paragraph 1 requires the responsible person, as soon as an infestation is established or comes to their knowledge, to do two things without delay: report it to the public health office of the competent district administration, and instruct a qualified specialist to deal with it. Section 5 paragraph 3 adds two further notifications, one when the treatment starts and one when it ends. The closing notification has to come with a certificate from the specialist naming the products actually used, including the registration number known as the B-Nummer, and the outcome. Failing to report is an administrative offence under section 15 of the ordinance, read together with section 73 paragraph 1a number 24 of the Protection Against Infection Act.^{Quelle 1, Quelle 4}

The word to notice is Verantwortliche Person, the responsible person. Section 2 paragraph 2 defines it as the owner, the person entitled to use the property or holding actual control over it, and the person obliged to maintain it. A tenant holds actual control over the flat they live in. So yes, a tenant can be the person who has to make that report, even though the same tenant is usually not the person who pays for the work.^{Quelle 1}

Cockroaches: reportable, but only in listed facilities

This is the part almost every competitor page gets wrong. Cockroaches are on the list in section 1, but section 5 applies subject to section 9, and section 9 says that the pests named in section 1 number 2 only have to be controlled if they occur in one of the specially endangered facilities defined in section 2 paragraph 1. That list is closed and it is institutional: day care centres and after school clubs, licensed childminding, schools and other training establishments, homes, holiday camps, sport and leisure facilities, hospitals, outpatient surgery centres, rehabilitation and dialysis facilities, day clinics, maternity units, comparable treatment and care facilities, medical, dental and psychotherapeutic practices and practices of other human health professions, homeless shelters, shared accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees, other mass accommodation, prisons, care facilities, care and intensive care flat shares, and residential settings of disability support.^{Quelle 1}

In an ordinary private flat, therefore, a cockroach infestation triggers no reporting duty and no statutory obligation to hire anyone. That does not make it harmless. It makes it a tenancy matter rather than a public health matter, which is exactly the distinction the next section is about. And the health authority keeps a general power in reserve regardless: under section 17 paragraph 2 of the Protection Against Infection Act it may order measures whenever health pests are found and there is a risk that they spread pathogens.^{Quelle 1, Quelle 2}

Mice are not on the Berlin list. Neither are bed bugs, moths, silverfish, fleas, mites, pigeons, wasps or hornets. If you read on a German website that you must report bed bugs to the Gesundheitsamt, that website is wrong about Berlin.^{Quelle 1}

Section 535 paragraph 1 sentence 2 of the Civil Code obliges the landlord to keep the property in a condition fit for its contractual use throughout the tenancy. A pest infestation is a defect of the property in that sense, so removing it is in principle the landlord's obligation and the landlord's cost. The Landessozialgericht Berlin-Brandenburg put it in exactly those terms in a judgment of 8 May 2025 concerning a bed bug infestation, and the reasoning is not species specific. The one recognised exception is where the tenant caused the infestation through their own conduct in the flat.^{Quelle 5, Quelle 13}

The same judgment covers the situation that comes up most often in a Berlin apartment block, where nobody can prove where the animals came in. If the cause of a serious infestation can be attributed neither to the landlord nor to the tenant, or cannot be established at all, the infestation still gives rise to the possibility of a rent reduction under section 536 paragraph 1 of the Civil Code. Not being able to prove the source does not shift the burden onto you.^{Quelle 13, Quelle 6}

Reducing the rent

Section 536 paragraph 1 allows a reduction of the rent for the period during which the fitness of the property is reduced, unless the impairment is insignificant. There is no statutory table of percentages. What exists is case law about individual flats, and one Berlin decision on rats is worth knowing: the Amtsgericht Schöneberg held in 2010 that a reduction of fifteen per cent was justified where rats had appeared in the bathroom several times a week until a rat flap was fitted. That is one case with one set of facts, not a rate card. Reducing the rent unilaterally on the wrong basis creates arrears, and arrears are grounds for termination, so this is a point at which advice from a Mieterverein or a lawyer earns its keep.^{Quelle 6, Quelle 14, Quelle 9}

Paying yourself and asking for the money back

Booking the job yourself and sending your landlord the invoice afterwards is the route that fails most often. Section 536a paragraph 2 allows you to remove the defect yourself and claim the necessary expenses only in two situations: the landlord is in default with removing it, or immediate removal is necessary to preserve or restore the property. Default normally means you asked, you set a reasonable deadline in writing, and the deadline passed. Skipping that step is how the tenants in the 2025 Berlin case ended up carrying the cost themselves.^{Quelle 7, Quelle 13}

The annual service charge

Number 9 of section 2 of the Betriebskostenverordnung does list pest control as an operating cost, which is why landlords sometimes try to put a single treatment into the Nebenkostenabrechnung. Section 1 of the same ordinance is the limit: operating costs are costs that arise on an ongoing basis, and it expressly excludes maintenance and repair. The 2025 judgment applies that directly. A one off removal of an infestation is maintenance, not an operating cost, and it cannot be passed on. Recurring, precautionary pest control across the building can be. Check which of the two is in the statement before you pay it.^{Quelle 12, Quelle 11, Quelle 13}

Two further points for people on benefits, because this comes up constantly in Berlin. The Landessozialgericht held that pest control costs are not covered by the Jobcenter: not as an exceptional unavoidable need, not as initial furnishing, not as a running need, and not as accommodation costs, at least where the tenancy agreement does not validly impose such costs on the tenant. Claimants are directed to their civil law claim against the landlord instead. And if the landlord's contractor needs access, section 555a of the Civil Code obliges you to tolerate maintenance measures and requires the landlord to announce them in good time, with expenses you incur as a result reimbursed on request.^{Quelle 13, Quelle 10}

Section 536c paragraph 1 requires the tenant to notify the landlord without delay once a defect appears during the tenancy. Paragraph 2 sets out what happens if you do not. You owe the landlord compensation for the resulting damage, and to the extent the landlord could not remedy the defect because the notice was missing, you lose the right to reduce the rent under section 536, the right to claim damages under section 536a, and the right to terminate without notice. In other words, silence does not preserve your position, it dismantles it.^{Quelle 8, Quelle 6, Quelle 7}

The law does not prescribe a form. Practice does, because you may have to prove later that the notice arrived and when. Send it in writing, keep a copy, and use a channel that leaves a record. Email to the Hausverwaltung is fine and common. If the relationship is already tense, a letter with proof of delivery is better. German is the safer language for the notice itself even when the rest of your correspondence runs in English, because the recipient is being put on formal notice.^{Quelle 8}

1. 01Write down what you saw and whereRoom, location, when it started, how often. Droppings, bites, damage, sounds. Concrete observation, not a diagnosis. You are not required to identify the species correctly.
2. 02Photograph it before you cleanPhotographs with a visible date are the evidence. For bed bugs the Umweltbundesamt is explicit that traces of the infestation should not be cleaned away first, because they are what the specialist needs to work from.
3. 03Send the notice to the landlord or the HausverwaltungState that you are giving notice of a defect under section 536c of the Civil Code, describe it, and ask for it to be remedied. Keep the copy.
4. 04Set a reasonable deadline in writingThis is the step that later turns into default under section 536a paragraph 2. Without a deadline that has passed, a claim for your own costs is on thin ice.
5. 05Report it separately if it is a rat infestationThe notice to your landlord is not a report to the authority. If rats are involved, the report to the public health office of your district is a separate obligation under section 5 paragraph 1 of the Berlin ordinance.
6. 06Let the contractor in, and note what was doneSection 555a obliges you to tolerate maintenance measures once they are properly announced. Keep the paperwork: it decides later arguments about the service charge.

^{Quelle 8, Quelle 7, Quelle 1, Quelle 10, Quelle 26}

One entry in that table deserves a sentence of its own, because it is the one that most changes how people feel. Bed bugs are miserable to live with and they are genuinely difficult to remove, but the Umweltbundesamt states plainly that on current knowledge they play no role as carriers of pathogens. What is documented is different: scratching the bites can lead to secondary infections, and affected people frequently report sleep problems. That is a real burden. It is not an infection risk, and any firm that sells you the treatment by suggesting otherwise is selling you fear.^{Quelle 26}

1. Buying a product and treating rats yourself. In Berlin the ordinance requires a qualified specialist to be instructed for rats. Treating them yourself without being a Fachkraft within the meaning of section 2 paragraph 4 is an administrative offence under section 15 paragraph 1 number 4.
2. Assuming anything sold in a shop is legal to use. Section 3 paragraph 1 of the ordinance permits only products and procedures recognised by the competent federal authority, and section 18 paragraph 1 of the Protection Against Infection Act puts that list with the Umweltbundesamt.
3. Buying an ultrasonic repeller. The Umweltbundesamt writes that on present knowledge all of these devices have proved ineffective.
4. Cleaning away the traces before anyone has seen them. For bed bugs the Umweltbundesamt advises expressly against removing the traces of infestation first, because the specialist needs them in order to work.
5. Moving to the sofa or the spare room because of bed bugs. The Umweltbundesamt advises against changing your sleeping place, because it spreads the animals further through the flat. They generally migrate to other rooms when the food source disappears, and you are the food source.
6. Expecting one treatment to be enough. For bed bugs the Umweltbundesamt states that several treatments are needed and that a successful operation is only complete after some weeks.
7. Relying on gel baits against cockroaches. There are populations of the German cockroach that avoid a particular sugar, glucose, and therefore no longer take the commonly used gel bait products. This is why a shop bought bait can fail completely while the infestation grows.
8. Treating the animals and leaving the cause in place. For rats the Berlin ordinance makes this explicit in section 7 paragraph 1: waste has to be made inaccessible, food stored securely, bulky waste and rubble cleared, and damaged supply and drainage pipes repaired and sealed where they enter the building.
9. Paying first and asking about the money afterwards. Without a written notice of defect and a deadline that has passed, the claim against the landlord under section 536a paragraph 2 is difficult, and the Jobcenter will not step in.

^{Quelle 1, Quelle 3, Quelle 25, Quelle 26, Quelle 27, Quelle 7, Quelle 13}

Section 7 paragraph 2 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act distinguishes specially protected and strictly protected species, and annex 1 of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance is where you look up which is which. For specially protected species, section 44 paragraph 1 prohibits catching, injuring or killing individuals, and it also prohibits damaging or destroying their breeding and resting sites. All European bird species fall into this category, which is the reason a nest on a balcony cannot simply be removed. The hornet is listed in annex 1 as well.^{Quelle 16, Quelle 18, Quelle 21}

The consequences are set out in section 69 of the same act, and a breach of those prohibitions can be an administrative offence punishable by a fine of up to fifty thousand euros. Exemptions exist under section 45 paragraph 7, but they are granted by the authority in advance, on application, and not by the firm holding the ladder. In Berlin the competent body for such exemptions is the senate administration responsible for nature conservation.^{Quelle 20, Quelle 19}

The Animal Welfare Act adds a second layer that applies far more widely than people expect. Section 1 sentence 2 prohibits causing an animal pain, suffering or harm without good reason, and section 13 paragraph 1 prohibits the use of devices or substances to catch, deter or drive away vertebrates where this involves a risk of avoidable pain, suffering or harm. Vertebrates means rats, mice, pigeons and every other bird and mammal, so it reaches ordinary traps and ordinary deterrents. The Verwaltungsgericht Berlin applied that provision in 2022 and stressed that the protection covers each individual animal equally, so an interpretation that softens the rule according to how many animals are affected is not permissible.^{Quelle 22, Quelle 23, Quelle 15}

Wasps and hornets are not pests in the legal sense at all. The Umweltbundesamt describes them as pollinators and as hunters of other insects. Where a nest genuinely sits in the wrong place, the route is advice, redirection or relocation, and in Berlin the NABU Hymenopterendienst exists for exactly that.^{Quelle 28, Quelle 29}

Section 2 paragraph 4 of the Berlin ordinance lists exhaustively who counts as a qualified specialist: someone who has passed the examination under the training regulation for pest controllers of 15 July 2004, or the examination as a certified pest controller under the regulation of 19 March 1984, or the retraining examination under the regulation of 18 February 1997, or the journeyman or master examination in pest control under West German or East German law, or who holds demonstrably comparable expertise acquired in the European Union or the European Economic Area, or an examination officially recognised as equivalent.^{Quelle 1}

Two practical consequences follow. Working without that qualification where the ordinance requires it is an administrative offence under section 15 paragraph 1 number 4. And only a Fachkraft can issue the certificate naming the products used and the registration number, which is what section 5 paragraph 3 number 2 requires you to hand to the district office when the treatment is finished. If you are a landlord or a facility operator, that certificate is the document that closes the file.^{Quelle 1}

There is a further qualification for one specific method. Where a job is done by fumigation with biocidal products, number 4 of annex I to the Gefahrstoffverordnung requires a separate permit, the Befähigungsschein. It is issued on proof of a minimum age of eighteen, suitable vocational training, reliability, medical fitness, documented expertise and the necessary language skills, it is valid for at most six years, and the work itself has to be notified. If a firm proposes fumigation, this is the paper to ask for.^{Quelle 24}

Ask any firm you consider, including us, to show its qualification before it starts. A firm that will not show it is the wrong firm, and in Berlin it may not legally be doing the work at all.^{Quelle 1}

It starts with a description. Call, send a message on WhatsApp, or use the form on the home page, and say what you have seen, where in the property, and since when. That description already decides two things: whether the animal is likely to be one that has to be reported to your district office, and whether an inspection makes sense at all. Some of what reaches us turns out to be a tenancy question with no infestation behind it, and saying so is cheaper for everyone than a visit.

On site we look at where the animals are sitting and how they get in. The route in matters more than the animals themselves, because it is what decides whether the treatment holds. Only after that inspection is the method fixed, and only after that is the price fixed. The price for the whole job is stated before any work begins, and anyone who does not want to go ahead at that point says so.

At the end come the steps the ordinance requires where it applies: collecting bait residues, removing warning notices afterwards and not before, and the certificate naming the products actually used with the registration number, which is the document you need for the closing notification to the district office.^{Quelle 1}

This page is written in English, and we are not going to turn that into a promise we have not made. If you would rather not explain the problem by phone, write it down instead. The form on the home page and a message on WhatsApp both reach us, and a written description with photographs is usually more useful than a conversation anyway.

One more thing worth saying to anyone renting here. If you are a tenant, sort the paperwork in parallel with the treatment, not after it. Send the notice of defect, keep the copy, photograph what you found, and check whether the cost later turns up in a service charge statement where it does not belong. That takes very little and it is what decides whether the bill stays with the landlord where the law puts it.^{Quelle 8, Quelle 11}