Comments on: Why building managers must notify residents that their building has bed bugs

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:21:19 +0000

really bugged,

Please post your message to a new thread on our forums. Myself and many others will respond there. You are unlikely to get as many readers here on the comments of an old post.

Here’s where you go:

http://bedbugger.com/forum/

By: really bugged

really bugged — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:54:54 +0000

I face a similar situation as grossed out – Do we need to inform the school – what abput books the children bring home from school and return it to school library ?
I live in an apartment building in NY with 19 apartments on each floor and 16 floors in each bulding – currently from what I have been hearing there seem to be about 3 aprtments on each floor which seem to be infested – The management has not sent a circular to every apartment informing the tenants of the problem in the bulding. The management of the bulding have appointed a PCO but when he came home he only sprayed on the bed and couch – he did not provide any further instructions to me and said that he would be back in 2 weeks. since I was unaware of what should be done as soon as I goot to know of bedbugs in the house I threw away one of the mattresses and moved stuff around which I think has caused the bedbugs to spread all over
Questions I have:-
Should I trust the PCO with his job or to venture out and try to work on the problem myself?
My son is still getting bites 4 days into the treatment – I called up the management if the exterminator coould come again and was informed then they would come only after 2 weeks from the first treatment- what should I do now – I am scared that they will spread all over in the apartment if I do not act myself – at the same time I am not sure how to treat the infestation myself!
I have a computer printer and a bookshelf in the childrens room which is infested – I was not given any instructions on how to deal with the other stuff in the bedroom – the wait till the next visit by PCO seems endless. What should I do bag everything? and then what?
The flooring in the apartment is wooden tiles atleast 25 years old with lots of visible cracks in them and spaces between floors and walls – I cannot physically caulk all of this- Can I really get rid of the bugs with all these various issues?
I called 311 but was informed that if the landord was dealing with the problem then there really was no complaint- how do I handle this
I do not have the time to eduacate all the neighbors – shouldnt the management be doing that?
Shouldnt the complete building be treated as a whole – How do I convince the management to do that – they have the attitute that ht eexterminator is being sent to your apartment which should be enough?
I feel all the efforts that I take would be a waste and will not rid the apartment untill the whole building is treated!
Please advice!

By: grossed out

grossed out — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:08:17 +0000

my god!!!…ive herd of the saying”don’t let the bed bugs bite” but never thought they actualy did. my friend had them but i never thought it would be like this. i was uneducated about these pests that have attacted my children. and probably myself although i didn’t swell like they did. now i know and i want the world to know also.

i live in a building and want to tell all of the tenants because i am finding out that no one was informed of previous out breaks and belive every one should be looking for the bugs especialy if we are tring to get rid of them. im am so creeped out i threw out all my matresses and am buying blow up beds to feel a bit cleener/safer and hopfully will beable to sleep at night.

will i get in legal trouble by providing information to other tenants about bed bugs? i plan to make a general informational letter to every one…no spacifics of who may or may not have but simply for awareness and hopes that every one will check thier place and put it under thier door. i just don’t want to get them back a few months down the raod.

should schools be notified?
could it have been brought from there?
i used to let the children from the building come over to play at my place cause they all(aprox 8 in total) used to play in the halls, including the land lords children. i din’t think they should play in the halls so they started comming to my place now i find out i have bed bugs. i have been talking to other tenants that i know and i herd rummors of other tenants children having bites on them one of wich i was letting play over.

for the last week i have told the children they cannot play over.after im done cleening they will still not be allowed over.
is it mean of me to say these children are nolonger allowed to come and play at my place?
can the begs spread anyways?, because they play in the halls,litteraly roll around, going from third floor to bottom, bring thier toys into the hallway, its like thier “rec room”. and the landloard says she ant tell them not to play in the hall.(its her kids in the hall too) gggrrr

By: VMP

VMP — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:06:58 +0000

I already posted this on the thread but here goes….
I agree with this. Matter of fact I agree with it so much that I think it should be made law that landlords should have to inform tenants of every building even if it is only one apartment in that complex (agree that they don’t need to disclose which tenant to protect their privacy)…I know my neighbors visit each other a lot and this is an obvious way of spreading them.

Not to mention the parents of my complex who let their children play by the dumpsters and jump on the torn up infested mattresses. EWWWW Obviously the tenant of those children got them.

I would probably have been spared some grief from a third run in with them if the LL had informed me that he was treating 3 of my conjoined neighbors a month prior to me telling him I noticed I had them again.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:44:06 +0000

bastardbug,

I am not sure it’s entirely legal. But we probably need some lawsuits to test this.

Not that I am encouraging anyone to sue. And of course, I am certainly not a lawyer.

By: bastardbug

bastardbug — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:27:40 +0000

Oh, man… I can only imagine how much easier my and so many others’ lives would be right now had my former apartment’s management alerted tenants that the rotting flesh smell on the first floor was an enormous bed bug infestation. HOW is that legal? If only someone on the national level would declare bbs a public health issue…

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:26:52 +0000

bedbugjean,

This sounds like a fairly common scenario.

I think building management have an ethical responsibility to warn tenants bed bugs are present, and few do.

Some people may be filing lawsuits on the basis of not having been notified, and if they do well, we may see a change in this behavior.

By: bedbugjean

bedbugjean — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:13:52 +0000

I have spoken to a few new tenants where I live…a senior high rise…and they were not told there were bed bugs in the the buildings here. They were only told that the high rise buildings has issues. These recent tenants are not very happy at all. Bed bugs has been an issue since 2005! We are in between phase 2 and 3 of two PCO companies exterminating us.

Management should be liable to tell applicants of the situation of bed bugs. Until that happens this issue will never be solved.

Also, dumpster diving is very common here and has aggravated the process of proper bed bug removal. Management feels it is not their job to police the dumpsters or the people who take things from them. Therefore, Management is not fully cooperating either. I am thoroughly disgusted!

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:32:58 +0000

Rich, this seems very true.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:27:09 +0000

When property owners who knowingly rent bed bug infested units to unsuspecting tenants start being held financially responsible for damages suffered by the tenant, things will change.