How to Report Rats or Mice in Wichita and What Happens Next

Who handles rodent complaints in Wichita

Rodents themselves are not a separate complaint category. The city deals with the conditions that feed and shelter them: piled trash, junk, bulky waste, overgrown weeds, illegal dumping and housing that is not kept up.

The city's Report an Issue page sends these categories to the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department:

• Tall grass and weeds on private property
• Residential nuisances
• Housing complaints
• Illegal dumping on an alley or right-of-way
• Inoperable vehicles on private property

Within MABCD, the Neighborhood Inspections division handles these complaints. According to reporting by The Wichita Beacon, that division covers residential properties inside the City of Wichita, not commercial buildings.

Nuisance notices from the city cite Section 8.01.010 of the Code of the City of Wichita for the definition of a nuisance, and they are issued by the MABCD director. Weed notices cite Chapter 7.40, which makes growth of weeds and grass over twelve inches tall unlawful inside city limits.

How to file a report

There are two ways to report a problem property in Wichita:

• The city's Report an Issue tool, available as an app for Apple and Android phones and linked from the city website.
• MABCD's online complaint portal, which The Beacon reports lets you file by name or anonymously and check whether a case already exists for an address.

MABCD also takes complaints by phone. The number is listed on the city's website.

A useful report describes the conditions, not just the rats. Inspectors cite what they can see and measure. Include:

• The address, or the nearest address and a description if it is a vacant lot
• What is there: scattered trash, bags of garbage, junk, tires, a pile of brush, open bulky items, overgrown grass
• Any rat signs you can see from the street or your yard, like burrows along a shared fence
• How long it has been going on
• Photos taken from your own property or the public right-of-way

Do not go onto someone else's property to take pictures or set traps.

What happens after you report

The Beacon described the process in a 2022 report on Wichita's nuisance system. An inspector is assigned by location and typically visits within 72 hours. Higher-priority problems may be handled within 24 hours, and lower-priority ones can take up to 30 days.

If the inspector finds a violation, a notice goes to the owner, typically giving 3 to 90 days to fix it depending on the problem. The inspector comes back for a recheck and can grant an extension if there is real progress. An owner who disagrees can ask for an informal hearing within 10 days of receiving the notice.

Published city notices show what a typical order asks for. Recent MABCD notices order owners to remove scattered trash, debris and tree waste, bulky waste, salvage material, tires, metal, shopping carts and other junk, and they warn that if the owner does not act, the department will abate the nuisance and levy the costs against the property.

If the owner does not fix it

When an owner ignores a notice, the city has two main tools, according to The Beacon.

The first is abatement. The city pays a contractor to clean up the property and bills the owner, who has 30 days to pay. If the bill goes unpaid, the cost becomes a special assessment on the property's taxes. Properties whose owners have died or live out of state may go straight to abatement.

The second is court. For local owners, the city can file a case in municipal court. The Beacon reported that nuisance code violations carry up to a $1,000 fine, up to 12 months in jail or both, and failing to remove bulky waste carries up to a $500 fine, up to six months in jail or both. A city spokesperson told The Beacon that jail time for nuisance violations is rare.

The Beacon also reported that the city has a code enforcement liaison program that connects residents who cannot afford a cleanup with volunteers, and that a local nonprofit also provides cleanup volunteers.

Rentals, restaurants and other special cases

Rentals. If you rent and have mice or rats inside, tell your landlord in writing first. Kansas law requires landlords to comply with building and housing codes that materially affect health and safety. If nothing changes, a housing complaint to MABCD is the next step. The Beacon reports that tenants can file complaints about interior code concerns through the portal. The tenant and landlord guide has the details.

Restaurants and food stores. Rodent droppings or live rodents in a restaurant, grocery or other food business are a food safety issue. The Kansas Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Lodging program handles those. See the Kansas restaurant rodent rules guide.

Trash pickup. Wichita residents use private, city-permitted trash haulers. If your own hauler misses pickups, contact the hauler first. The city's Solid Waste and Recycling page lists who to contact if a hauler problem is not resolved.

Outside Wichita city limits. Derby, Andover, Haysville, Bel Aire, Park City, Maize, Goddard, Valley Center, Kechi and Eastborough are separate cities. Contact that city's code enforcement or city hall about a problem property there.

What reporting will not do

A city complaint addresses the property conditions, like trash, junk, weeds and housing defects. It does not send someone to trap rats in your yard or seal your house. Even when a neighboring property gets cleaned up, rats that already moved toward your house may stay if they have food and a way in.

That is why most people do both: report the conditions, and take care of their own property. Close gaps rats use with hard materials, keep trash in carts with lids, pick up pet food and fallen birdseed and clear clutter along fences. The rat control and rat burrow treatment pages explain what a provider does on the private side.

Questions Wichita readers ask

Keep reading

• Wichita Trash, Weed and Yard Rules That Affect Rats and Mice

  Wichita uses private, city-permitted trash haulers, limits weeds and grass to twelve inches and abates properties with trash and junk. Here is how those rules connect to rodents, plus yard habits that help.

• Rats and Mice in a Wichita Rental: Tenant and Landlord Duties

  Kansas law does not mention pests by name, but it puts housing code compliance, common areas and garbage receptacles on the landlord, and cleanliness and trash removal on the tenant.

• Rodent Violations at Wichita Restaurants Under the Kansas Food Code

  Wichita restaurants are inspected by the Kansas Department of Agriculture under the 2022 Kansas Food Code. Droppings or rodents can put a place out of compliance until a follow-up shows the problem fixed.

• All Wichita rodent guides
• Rat and mouse articles