Am I Being Unreasonable?

So I'm barely two weeks into my new apartment lease and the ceiling leaked from the apartment above me. The maintenance crew cealed the leak and are drying out the apartment. However, I discovered mouse feces over the cabinets, counter top and sink. They had a cleaning crew come in to clean up and they did a terrible job.

There was still feces in the same places and I said to the leasing office I wanted someone to clean it. I was appalled it took almost everything under the sun to get someone to just clean. It's a health hazard and I wanted it to be cleaned right, not half hazardly.

I could see how this may eventually happen in time, but when I just move in? This is all in my kitchen and it makes me lose my appetite to think there's a high probability that feces is right next to my food. This is my first apartment and I don't know what to expect, but I am receiving such opposition and negativity that I may consider backing out of my lease. Btw I have always grown up in a clean environment, if that matters.

Ugh, disgusting. Demand that the clean up job be done right. If they don't respond quickly, report them to the health department or contact a lawyer. You don't have to uphold your end of the lease agreement if they won't uphold theirs.

Depending on where you live, try looking for a tenant's rights advocacy group, as well. They're usually a good place to get up to date legal details and the like.

Was this new feces? Did you notice anything during your initial walkthrough? That's definitely the time to be looking for droppings and signs of infestation so that there's no question the landlord is responsible for it. Implied warranty varies from state to state, so whether they have to clean up droppings for you is variable.

Look up tenancy laws where you are to know your rights. Tenancy advocacy groups are a good idea. Make sure you're corresponding with your landlord in certified / electronic mail so that you can easily document it. Provide written notification of the droppings. Ask for traps. If the problem persists and your landlord doesn't remedy it, you can consider calling a building inspector and seeking out legal consults.

Or, given that it took all but two weeks to discover the state of the management there, if there's a way to affordably terminate your lease early, that may be the best and easiest course of action.

If management is not taking care of rodent infestation look online for your county health department or building code department and report them. Depending on where you live, either one will come over, do an inspection and force the management to fix the problem or else. Counties/cities have laws against that kind of stuff.

I would start taking pictures and documenting convos, how many times you asked etc. just in case.

I can still get out of the lease, but really I just wanted it cleaned up properly. They had the audacity to clearly act exasperated and fed up of me trying to ask them to do this. Even asked me "what do you want from us?". I mean, I've been extremely clear. I even stood by while one maintenance guy looked over my cabinets and said it looks like the cleaning crew cleaned it while poo was staring him right in the face. I literally had to point out to him and then he picked some up with a tissue. Then acted like it was fixed. There's still more and who knows where else.

When first looking at the apartment, it looked clean. Then the leak happened and exposed droppings. Maintenance said there would be no way they migrated between the concrete floors so it must have been there in the first place. Keep in mind, multiple people looked at these cabinets and found nothing of the sort. I have a lease agreement that if the apartment is unsatisfactory in any way within the first month and if the problems aren't resolved, then I can terminate.

Management said they'll have a cleaner and exterminator come in. I just wonder how much good it will do. I may just call the health department or someone to look the place over who actually has my health in their best interest in mind. Then I'll see if I should be looking for another place.