West Babylon family flees roach, mouse infestation at apartment complex

A West Babylon family says roaches, mice and piles of garbage outside their apartment pushed them out of Fairfield Suburbia Gardens after nearly two years, putting Suffolk County’s tenant protections and housing enforcement in sharp focus.

Andrew Parrish said he, his wife and their young daughter moved into the complex in August 2024 and quickly ran into problems that kept getting worse. The family said the infestation and the garbage accumulation outside their unit continued despite repeated attempts to get help from property management. Parrish said the family left at the end of December 2025 and is now fighting over the lease agreement with Fairfield Properties.

The case lands in the middle of a legal framework that gives renters more than a hope for repairs. New York’s warranty of habitability guarantees tenants a livable, safe and sanitary apartment, and the state Attorney General says a landlord may violate that right by failing to rid a unit of an insect infestation. In practical terms, that means roaches and mice are not just a nuisance, they can become a housing-law problem when a landlord does not act.

For Suffolk renters, the county health department can become another point of pressure. The Suffolk County Bureau of Public Health Protection responds to nuisance complaints involving garbage storage and rodent infestations in rental properties, along with complaints about inadequate heat, sanitary waste overflows, stagnant swimming pools and utility shutoffs. In a case like Fairfield Suburbia Gardens, that puts the county on the front line when residents say conditions have become unsafe and unsanitary.

Fairfield Suburbia Gardens is at 381-401 Great East Neck Road in West Babylon and markets one- and two-bedroom apartments. The complex sits in a dense residential corridor where families expect routine upkeep, not pest problems severe enough to drive them out. Fairfield Properties had been contacted for comment and had not responded.

The Parrish family’s departure leaves behind a familiar question for Suffolk housing watchdogs: when a tenant says a unit has become unlivable, how quickly do the landlord, the county and state authorities move before the conditions force another family to leave?