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Pest control Inner West
Guide 1 of 5

Will my Inner West neighbours be told before the treatment?

It depends on the kind of home. A house or a duplex sits outside the unit block rule, a block of three or more residences is inside it, and a school next door changes who is told again.

General information from the official sources named on this page, not legal advice.

One Inner West street drawn as an elevation: a run of separate houses, a run of terraces and semis, a block of flats, a short gap, and past it a school gate. Each run carries the notice rule that applies to its homes, set into the footpath beneath it, and each mark opens a guide. The back gardens Separate houses Terraces and semis Flats and units The school gatenot a dwelling, not to scale The five working days rule for unit blocks does not apply to single houses or duplexes. The licence still applies, and a copy of any notice or record is kept. The licence still applies, and a copy of any notice or record is kept. Ask the NSW EPA on 131 555 whetheryour row counts. Five working days notice before the common areas of a multiple-occupancy residential complex are treated. Complexes take in units, flats, townhouses or villas, at three or more residences. Notice goes to the person who runs the school, at least 5 working days before certain pesticides are used outside next door. A hospital is not owed this notice. inspectionWhat a building inspection report will not say about termites
The same Inner West street stood on end: a band of separate houses, a band of terraces and semis, a band of flats, each as tall as its share of the Inner West's homes, and a short final band for the school gate. Each band carries its own notice rule. Separate houses The five working days rule for unit blocks does not apply to single houses or duplexes. 28.8% of homes Terraces and semis The licence still applies, and a copy of any notice or record is kept. Ask the NSW EPA on 131 555. 27.1% of homes Flats and units At least five working days notice before the common areas of a multiple-occupancy residential complex are treated. 42.4% of homes The school gate not a dwelling, not to scale Notice goes to the person who runs the school, at least 5 working days before certain pesticides are used outside next door. The back gardens, and the animals the council names
The same Inner West street, drawn as an elevation: a run of separate houses, a run of terraces and semis, a block of flats, then a short gap and a school gate. Each run carries the notice rule that applies to its homes, this guide's mark is the one lit, and every mark opens a guide. Widths follow the 2021 Census count of the Inner West's occupied private dwellings: 28.8% separate houses, 27.1% semi-detached, row or terrace houses and townhouses, 42.4% flats or apartments; the 1.5% other dwellings are not drawn (ABS QuickStats, Inner West). Source: abs.gov.au © Commonwealth of Australia.

The rule turns on the kind of home

The notice rule that reaches residents is written for shared buildings. When a pest management technician is organised to treat the common areas of a multiple-occupancy residential complex, the residents are owed at least five working days' notice.

A complex, in that sense, is made of units, flats, townhouses or villas, at three or more residences, and it takes in caravan parks with long-term residents. Common areas are the parts everyone shares: paths, gardens and lawns, foyers and hallways, the shared laundry, car parks, roof cavities and the space under the floor.

The five days are not a courtesy that can be skipped when the calendar is tight. The EPA's guide is blunt that the application cannot go ahead unless the notice has been given. The same guidance draws the other side of the line just as plainly: its rules do not reach dual occupancies, duplexes or single residences.

Two duties do not depend on the kind of home at all. Only a licence holder may carry out prescribed pesticide work, and pest management technician licences come from the NSW EPA. A householder can also ask to see a licence before agreeing to any work, which the EPA suggests doing.

A school, a childcare centre or a hospital next door

A different notice reaches a different door. Where a technician uses certain pesticides outdoors beside a sensitive place, the person answerable for that place has to be told at least five working days before the pesticide is used; the EPA's own examples include a school and a nursing home. The regulation behind that duty puts the distance at 20 metres, and names whoever manages the sensitive place, or an agent of that person, as the one to tell.

Two limits keep it in proportion. Where no sensitive place shares the boundary, no notification is mandatory at all, though the EPA calls it good practice to tell people next door when sensitive people are there. Hospitals are the exception the rule itself carves out. The guide to a school or childcare centre next door works through the whole of that rule.

The terrace question, which is not ours to answer

The five working days are written for the common areas of a multiple-occupancy residential complex, and those complexes are units, flats, townhouses and villas at three or more residences, with caravan parks with long-term residents included.

A row of three or more terraces, each on its own title, standing side by side on one street, raises a question this page will not guess at: whether the row counts as one of those complexes, which would put its shared paths, gardens and roof spaces under the five day notice.

The EPA answers it rather than this page: its own fact sheet for owners and property managers points to the Environment Line on 131 555, a local call from anywhere in NSW, for more information about notice, including a template to work from.

When the five days fall away

An emergency is the one case the five days are not owed. Where a treatment is made in an emergency situation, residents are not required to have five working days' notification. The duty is not cancelled, only compressed: notification is still to be given before the job is undertaken.

The other case is smaller than an emergency. Minor domestic-style pesticide use, of the kind that does not require a pest management technician, carries no notice requirement at all. The guide to emergencies and small jobs takes both cases through the two EPA pages that hold them.

What the notice is for, and what it is not

A notice is information, not a permission slip. The regulation is explicit that a notice of this kind is informational: it gives residents no extra rights over the pesticide use, and it is not a veto.

The paper trail lasts longer than the treatment. Whoever had to give or display a pesticide use notice, or make a record, keeps a copy of it.

The technician records the job within 48 hours of the pesticide's use, and the record is kept for 3 years.

Three neighbours on one street, and the school beyond the fence

The comparison this guide exists for: four homes and a gate, each with what the NSW EPA's own pages say about it. Not one row is this page's reading of the law.

The homeWhat is owed before a treatment
A single house or a duplexThe unit block notice rules do not apply to it. A licence is still needed for prescribed pesticide work, and a copy of any notice or record has to be kept.
A terrace in a row, on its own titleWhether the row counts as a multiple-occupancy residential complex is the EPA's question to answer on 131 555. What binds the job either way is the licence and the duty to keep a copy of any notice or record.
A block of three or more residencesAt least five working days' notice to residents before the common areas are treated, and the application cannot go ahead without it.
A house next door to a schoolA pesticide use notice to the person who has the care, control or management of the school, no fewer than 5 working days before a pesticide is sprayed outdoors, or injected into the ground outdoors, within 20 metres of it.
Any of them, in an emergencyThe five working days are not owed, but notification still comes before the job.

If it goes wrong

The EPA sets out what failing these requirements can cost: on-the-spot fines of $800 for a corporation or $400 for an individual, and fines of up to $44,000 imposed by a court for more serious offences. The licence side is separate, and the EPA gives the maximum penalty for prosecuting unlicensed pest control work as $60,000.

None of that is a reason to expect trouble from a treatment. It is a reason to read a notice when one arrives, and to know which of the rules on this street applies to the roof you live under.