‘It is a horror movie': South Florida tenant says termites made apartment unlivable

They may be small, but Sara Petrozza said the termites in her apartment were difficult to avoid. At night, they disturbed her sleep.

"I've been woken up numerous times with termites on me," she told NBC6.

During the day, she said they impacted her ability to cook.

"I have termite droppings all over my stove," she said. "Termites flying out of the holes over my stove."

The pesky pests, she said, made her Boca Raton rental feel nothing like home.

"It is a horror movie," she said. "It's to the point where my daughter and I are dreading to come home after work and school ... because it's so uncomfortable."

Sara signed her lease in January of 2022. She shared with NBC6 Responds dozens of text messages she exchanged with her landlord about the termites. The first was sent just days after signing her lease and included pictures showing what appeared to be signs of termites in the kitchen.

"My first conversation with him about it, he told me to have the exterminator check the attic because he suspected that there was a nest up there," she said.

The lease Sara signed shows she agreed to be responsible for pest control, including wood-destroying organisms. But the text messages Sara shared showed the landlord still sent an exterminator to the unit several times over the following months to try to get rid of the termites. 

Sara said she believes the termites were in the unit before she moved in and points to a pest control company's inspection report that noted "termite activity" in the kitchen cabinets and "damage in attic consistent with termites being in attic over 3 years".

She said the landlord did not tell her there were termites when he rented her the unit.

"There was no mention of termites, nothing," she said.

The landlord told NBC6 he never had a termite problem before Sara moved in, but he did not address the findings of the inspection report Sara provided.

"The Florida Landlord Tenant Act ... does not explicitly provide that a landlord is required to disclose the presence of termites in a unit," said Lissie Salazar, a senior attorney in the tenants' rights unit at Legal Services of Greater Miami. 

Salazar also said landlords and tenants can agree in writing as to who would be responsible for termites.

"To be quite honest with you, when I first signed the lease, I kind of just skimmed over it," Sara said.

Sara said she will be more careful about the details of her next lease but she also wants more protections for renters.

"I'm hoping that this causes some awareness and maybe the law will change here in Florida," Sara said. "If there was pre-existing issues with termites and stuff like that, it has to be disclosed. That has to change. It's not fair."

Sara did file a complaint with the city of Boca Raton's code enforcement division. They issued a violation notice. 

The department told NBC6 the violation was eventually closed, after the HOA and the owner provided proof that the attic and the interior of the unit had been treated for termites.

Sara was in the middle of her second lease when she decided to move out of the unit, before that termite treatment happened.