Q One of our unit owners has silverfish in her unit. Our units are on the water, and an owner says that the silverfish in her closet has caused hundreds of dollars in clothes to be thrown out. She cannot put clothes into the closet for that reason. She wants an exterminator now and again 4 times year. I feel it is her responsibility to at least get a spray product or something that she will use herself. As far as I know, anything inside the unit is the unit owner’s responsibility. The board is torn over this. What can we do?

—Perturbed in Palm Harbor

A “Many condominium and cooperative associations provide pest control services to the entire building, including both common areas and privately-owned units,” says Kenneth Direktor, a shareholder attorney and chair of the Community Association Practice Group at the law firm of Becker & Poliakoff in West Palm Beach.

“If the association is providing this service, the owner should notify the association of the problem and the association should notify the service provider and require the provider to resolve the problem. If the association is not providing this service, unless the governing documents require otherwise, pest control within the unit is the unit owner's responsibility. In that case, the association should take steps to enforce the unit owner's responsibility to resolve the problem before the infestation spreads to neighboring units and common areas.”