New Jersey: all hands on deck! A-3203 coming up for discussion tomorrow!

PolicickerNJ reports A-3203 is coming up for consideration Thursday.

Also to be considered is legislation (A-3203) Assembly members Joan M. Quigley (D-Hudson), L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex), L. Harvey Smith (D-Hudson), Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) and Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) sponsored to hold landlords responsible for keeping multi-unit apartment complexes free of bedbug infestations.

The sponsors crafted the legislation after news reports detailed severe outbreaks of bedbugs in apartment complexes across Hudson County. In these instances, the tenants, some of whom had nothing to do with the initial infestation, were being charged for extermination.

“It is disgusting to think that there are places in New Jersey where renters are being forced to cohabitate with vermin, simply because they cannot afford a proper extermination,” Quigley said. “Tenants should not have to pay extra simply to live in a clean and safe environment.”

New Jerseyites, email or call your Assembly members!

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New Jersey Assembly passes “bed bug bill” A-3203, requiring landlords of multi-unit dwellings to get rid of bed bugs : Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com: February 8, 2009 at 7:20 pm

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1 nobugsonme February 8, 2009 at 7:14 pm: A-32-3 passed 74-3. You can read more about it in the Press of Atlantic City, which writes,

Under the bill approved by a 74-3 vote in the Assembly, landlords of multiple-dwelling units must have bed-bug infestations removed as soon as they learn about them. Landlords must also give tenants pamphlets, which will be developed by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, warning them about bed bugs. It also establishes deadlines by which landlords must deal with bed bug infestations.

Landlords who don’t take appropriate actions face fines of $300 for each infested bedroom and $1,000 for each infested common area.

“Renters should not have to live silently with bedbug infestations,” said Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, D-Hudson, a bill sponsor. “Tenants who want to live in a clean and safe environment need the piece of mind that their landlord will work with them to ensure the sanctity of their home.”