I understand the 311 system is imperfect. However, it does seem important to get verification that you have bed bugs. Do you have a sample? Were they visible on the mattress? (It is important to remember that other conditions, like bird mites, can cause similar symptoms and in some cases be even harder to find.)

I am not surprised that the person answering the phone did not know bed bugs. They are not a bed bug hotline, but an information line for the city. But I would expect the actual inspector to know more.

If it’s a lawsuit you’re concerned about then having visual evidence documented by outsiders might be a big help. But I am not a lawyer.

My fear is that they will think I don’t have them simply because they won’t see them and I don’t want a potential lawsuit comprimised. I’ve called 311 and have been extrememly unimpressed with whomever I’ve spoken to and just wound up hanging up. They didn’t seem to understand that they might not see a bb or that they could be hiding in between floor planks, etc. I’m definitely getting bitten and these bb’s are somewhere, but the PCO that landlord employs don’t do any real inspecting.

It appears that you have posted above the response you left on the 248 McKibben MySpace page. Which is fine.

I just wanted to clarify for anyone who might come upon it and be confused that when you say “here,” you mean, not here, but the 248 McKibben Myspace page. Which is entirely not connected with this blog.

We would like to assure everyone that each and every complaint that was received by our office was dealt with immediately and appropriately. We had an exterminator visit and inspect every apartment that called our office suspecting bed bugs and some turned out to be mosquitoes, etc; but as a precaution we had also these apartments exterminated. It’s not a building wide problem it was limited to several apartments. There isn’t anyone that was ignored and every complaint was dealt with immediately. In fact any tenant that had a problem was called by us after the exterminate visit to verify that the problem was resolved.

Please note that it might take several visits by the exterminator to completely clean an apartment. If your space was exterminated and you still have a problem please advise us immediately as we had arranged with the exterminator to come back as many times needed to get rid of the problem. If anyone else has a problem which was not reported to us please call our office and be assured that we will take care of the problem immediately.

Also, we would like to ask you to be careful with bringing in any old furniture, mattresses, etc. to the building to prevent the bed bugs from initial entry; because that is where the problem usually starts. Please note that the bed bug problem initially started by a new tenant transferring their property with the bugs from their previous location. This in addition to tenants bringing good looking furniture, mattresses, etc. from the garbage, being oblivious to the fact that it is full of bed bugs. There is no way for us to control what every tenant transports in from the street, garbage, or from any other building that is already infested.

On September 12, 2007 people started posting here about this problem. Until these posts started there wasn’t any outstanding unresolved complaint. We have documented every call received from tenants and every visit by our exterminator. Looking back on all the posts there isn’t anyone complaining to state “I currently have a bed bug problem.” They’re talking about history or just suggesting what to do if there is a problem. In fact current tenants’ posts are that they don’t have any problems. Some of these posters don’t even live in the building and seem to have an agenda other than curing the problem. One previous tenant is actually using these posts for reasons of their own, namely to try to clean their credit record ruined by their eviction for non- payment, as well as trying to get company in their misery. And as some bloggers suggested; there are here wild accusations some with mosquito bites etc.

I know that one way at looking at this is that landlords acting in good faith will take steps to solve bedbug problems in their buildings, even if they’re the wrong steps. So, if they’re still ignorant of what it really takes and make a mess of it, or if their efforts are failing, they may still be persuaded by tenants into taking the right steps and bringing in the right PCOs. Perhaps a housing notice may prod those landlords into doing things the right way.

But if you have to assume bad faith and call 311 (and no doubt antagonize your landlord even further), then I’m not sure that a simple housing violation will do it, will intimidate such landlords into taking appropriate action, given that eradicating bedbugs requires a great deal of concerted action and cooperation from all sides and is, crucially, so very expensive.

I’m sure that calling 311 is the right thing to do in many circumstances, and especially in order to document the problem and leave a public record for others.

Like you have suggested before, there should be a system that is not antagonistic and where both landlords and tenants can get help. But first the city has to admit that there is a problem.

The link you added there to the HPD website is a good one: it suggests a course of events:

-Call 311 to report a housing violation
-HPD inspects
-HPD sends notice of violation to landlord
-Landlord given time to correct
-If landlord still does not correct,
-Tenant can initiate legal action.

The Order to Abate is probably given rarely in bed bug cases, because it’s rare for many people from one building to each call 311.

And yes, if someone has a standard bed bug case, the inspector may not see it. But if the entire building is infested, there’s a good chance the signs in many apartments will be obvious. It is also true that violations often stay on record for some time.

But I also have a hunch that some landlords don’t believe their tenants’ bed bug stories, or don’t really believe they’re liable. In such cases, it would be good to have backup.

You’re right that people should consider carefully before suing, but I don’t think people should hesitate to call 311 to report bed bugs or get their neighbors to do so.

But I am happy to hear if people have stories that dispute that!

Anon,
I edited the link in your comment so it works now. As of today, 248 McKibben has one violation for bed bugs listed as of 7/28, in one apartment on the 3rd floor. 255 has none.