Comments on: landlord’s duty to tell prospective tenants about bed bugs?

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:07:00 +0000

desperateinmass,

It sounds like you’re in Massachusetts. The laws on who pays for treatment when a rental unit has bed bugs do vary according to city and state, who brought the bed bugs in, and other factors.

Start with the first FAQ here and see if your city/state is covered. If you’re in Boston, it’s good news indeed.

If you want support, please come to our forums: http://bedbugger.com/forum/

By: sandra

sandra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:12:03 +0000

Kara I have been looking for a lawyer for months and cannot seem to get one to take my case. My case is very bad, I know all of you all are dealing with the same thing and I don’t mean to sound unconcerned about your cases and how badly it has tormented your lives it is the most terrible thing I belive out side losing a child can happen to anyone. My case is so bad with my land lady it has elevated to higher levels than I would have ever imagined. At first I thougth just get rid of everything and spray and clean real good and replace my things I lost. Yeah right, the landlady had done to me some terrible things. She refused to spray until I went to the health office and throwed a fit just about whipped her butt. She has lied on me to the other tenants telling them all sorts of nasty lies saying I BROUGHT THEM IN.. yeah right !! The next door neighbor had them and she didn’t tell us or have our apartments sprayed and there were about 6 of us on once corner of the building who got them we all had them. I got rid of everthing I had in cloth and because things got so ouot of control someone was going to get hurt and it wasn’t gonna be me so I moved. They did come and spray and I got the man to spray inside my boxes and tubs and left them sitting there in the apt. for 3.5 weeks The landlady slapped one lady and I told her to slap me? She knew better !! So this tenant with my help filed a law suit on the landlady for slapping her the court date is sometime this month and she will imform me and I AM GOING TO GO TO COURT WITH HER. I would love to talk to a lawyer about my case. I spent two days in the hospital for itching and swelling and nerves before I found out I had the bugs. My son came and spent some time with me and the bugs where in my couch and they like to eat him alive. I have pics of everything from start to finish and all my notes and document from the land lady to the owners. I have left no stone unturned and still under doctors care over this crap. The skin fell off my feet from I guess walking around in the apt. after they sprayed.

So Kara please I want to talk to your lawyer. Ask him/her if they would like to review my files and get me their email address. Thanks. my email address is.. hoopskirtkris@yahoo.com

By: desperateinmass

desperateinmass — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:17:05 +0000

the same thing that happened to caroline gentry happened to me except it started 2 days after i moved in. I thought my step-daughter was being bitten by mosquitos only to find out it was bedbugs one and a half mo. later. I immediately called my landlord and told him about the situation and he said fine look for a pest control company but if it’s going to cost like $1200.00 or so I won’t be able to pay . so the pco comes out and one week after the first treatment there come the bugs again. I then called him and told him that if they came back after the second treatment that I wanted to get the ok to break the lease, immediately he said “yup, that’s fine”. so then of course the bugs come back after the second treatment and I called him hysterical and he went on to say they came from my daughters bed. Anyway I spoke with him today and he told me that he would pay for another treatment but that I have to pay for half of the cost of the treatment. and that if they come back after the third attempt that I’m going to have to move because he can’t be dishing money out every month. But I recently found out that the previous tenant got evicted for non-payment of rent which leads me to believe that it could be due to BEDBUGS. so i’m starting my own investigation because now i may have to start from scratch and I’m a single mother raising 4 kids. this is not fair. can someone please give me some advise?

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:10:52 +0000

Hi kara,

PCOs tend to recommend that adjacent or attached units searched, if not treated. Some even recommend this for the entire building as yours says they did.

Landlords may refuse to do this for various reasons. Some are simply ignorant of how easily bed bugs spread. They may think a PCO is just trying to sell them more services without their needing it. Others may simply not be able to afford such extensive work.

I am not excusing them by any means, but these are some reasons which explain such a refusal. Ultimately, this will backfire and in buildings such as yours, they may end up with a severe and widespread problem which takes much more money and time to cure.

I wish you luck and hope you’ll keep us posted either via comments or privately.

By: kara

kara — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:27:27 +0000

The landlord told me that the pest company assured him that I was not at risk even though they were spraying the apartment below me. I called the pest company and they said that their policy is to recommend a block of apartments being sprayed where bedbugs are concerned. I took with me when I left, one of the many dead bugs under the new carpet, and I took a piece of drywall with bed bug droppings and have since had that confirmed by a forensic entomologist. I just don’t want them to squirm out of this. I believe they are ultimately responsible, it is probably just irrational fears now that I am so “close”. Yes, I have an attorney on retainer but I am representing myself pro se. I am fighting this battle on principal and for all of the poor immigrants, college students and section 8 housing people in that subdivision who have been intimidated and bullied into thinking they have no choice or those who actually do not have the means to leave

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:14:29 +0000

Hi kara,

I am NOT a lawyer. Do you have one advising you?

I don’t think this would necessarily let the landlord off the hook. It may be the case that the landlord would take his/her own legal action against a PCO that claimed the apartment was bed bug-free. Again, I stress I’m not qualified to give legal advice. The answer may have a lot to do with the laws wherever you are.

By: kara

kara — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:59:39 +0000

I am in the middle of a suit against my ex landlord. I was wondering if the landlord can just say that the pest company is responsible because they rented me the apartment, trusting the pest company that the apt. was clean?

By: caroline gentry

caroline gentry — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:44:36 +0000

I have a question. We are renting a single family home, had an outbreak of bedbugs, began treating just after labor day weekend. Have been through 2 different companies, much more successful with the second. Notified the owner when we were going to go with the second company due to costs and methods which a landlord would need to be in the loop on. She would not help with the cost of treatment, and we have a son highly allergic to the bites, so we had to go ahead and pay the second company as well.
Owner claims we brought them in, in fact suggested damages upon our leaving. I have filed a claim in district court (MD) upon advice of attorny generals office – saying let a judge decide. Don’t have a court date yet, but need to know what I am up against regarding this not being a multi unit rental

By: nyjammin

nyjammin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:37:21 +0000

So sorry for your troubles. Thanx for sharing your story. Is it possible to get in touch w/the woman who was a tenant before and you 2 could go to court together? This woman could verify that the problem was there before you even stepped foot in that place. The landlord telling everyone about your bugs and that you brought them in is called “slander” and that is against the law. Maybe you can sue him for slander as well.

Just a couple of suggestions.

By: betimeryhmecometolifeinstlouis

betimeryhmecometolifeinstlouis — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:20:51 +0000

Hello everyone, I just stumbled across this site.

For many months I have been looking for advise and help on what to do with a case of BED BUGS and the landlord is calling them “Fleas” because you want them to get rid of the bugs.

I have ran into Who Knows Who.

When I made phone calls I got no response out of people like the Inspectors & Attorney’s instead the landlord made up some bull crap to the inspector MONTHS after I called and they finally show up and tell me there is no evidence to proove what the landlord said but if this place is infested with bed bugs you have to move out in SEVEN days.

I was already in the process of it at this point but I had rented a retail store and an apartment, I had to go through everything I owned and throw most of it away everythng I wanted to save I treated with a spray I bout at the Pharmacy then wraped it in plastic and it worked I hope it has only been a month and we haven’t really unwraped anything we mostly saved personal items that can’t be replaced and the rest went in the trash.

My family thought we walked into a dream, I was in the middle of a divorce and I found an apartment and a store front down stairs. It ended up being our worst nightmare I lost my job, my investment, my belongings, Stress is unbelievable my family has been seperated, my grandchildren had to stop coming to grandma’s house while mommy or daddy was at work, one of them is now afraid to go to sleep at night one is afraid to stay at grandma’s house now.Some of us have scars from head to toe.

These people are still running a business in this building I know for a fact it is in three parts of the building. I don’t know how long the problem has been there but I do know it has been more than two years. I had a woman reach me that said she lived there prior to my moving in and she lost everything because of the bugs and the landlord would not do anything about it, she wished she would have been able to do something about it but now I can’t find her but I did find the sister.

I am going forward with court proceedings without an attorney trust me we are scared but we are going to do what we can to get someone to take care of this problem. I did not want to go public with this problem because I have teenagers and we are getting embarrassed by those that already know about the problem because now the landlord is going around telling people we brought these bugs.

I have alot of support from friends and family along with past landlords saying this is a new problem in my life and I had way too many nice things to want to be loosing due to a bug. Pictures will tell all in the court room I hope. I would not wish this problem on anybody and the only quick fix is to send everything to the dump. I could not take the problem with to the new place and I wanted out of that nightmare and then I was given a dead line so we lost thousands in furniture etc.

I wish all of those that are battling this problem lots of luck it’s a rough one. I hope the Judge makes him shut the building down and treat it the right way. You can’t get anything done if you don’t try and you will only know if it makes a difference if you try, that saying is what is getting me through this I’m not one for sueing but this uis something to far gone to let them get away with this effected everyone in my family and friends. This falls in a case of Breech of Implied Warranty of Habitability the hardest part is prooving if they were there and the landlord did not treat for them.

Good Luck to all this is a very costly and streesful pest to deal with until now I only knew they were a cute saying not a real bug.