There is a certain trio of dusky-colored high-rise apartment buildings in Halifax that are, and have always been, swarming with bedbugs.

Since these infested buildings have been gentrified and rented out to the oft-mobile university student population, what we have is a spread of bedbugs to other homes and buildings throughout Halifax.

Current legislation places the responsibility of bedbug control on the person who brought them into the building. Since extermination is expensive, tenants stay mum about it until the infestation spreads like wildfire to their neighbors.

The law regarding who pays for bed bug treatment in Nova Scotia rentals is a bit murky.

The CBC tells us, in their round-up of Canadian laws pertaining to this problem,

In Nova Scotia, Halifax doesn’t have clear-cut legislation for dealing with bedbugs. Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in. The Halifax agency has found that landlords often foot the bill as it’s difficult to prove there were no bugs before a tenant moves in. Tenants are advised to write a letter to a landlord asking to deal with the problem within a reasonable timeframe. If the landlord refuses, a hearing can be conducted in front of the officer of residential tenancies.

Here’s my concern: “Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in.”

What Bugged by Bedbugs highlights is that this motivates many tenants to not seek help — as long as they resist treatment, and bed bugs spread everywhere, individual tenants can no longer be assumed to be the “source.”

Of course, tenants who may be making such a choice, consciously, or by default (because they simply cannot pay for treatment) assume they are the “source” of their building’s problem.

Many Bedbugger Forum participants also assume they are the first in their building to have bed bugs. Why? Because landlords and neighboring tenants are not under any obligation to disclose their bed bug problem.

The reasoning seems to be that if I admit to having bed bugs, I will be seen as the source. Unfortunately, tenants have good reason for worrying about this — landlords and neighbors will likely assume the first person to find bed bugs is the “source,” even though it turns out, in so many cases, others have them too and either (a) don’t know about them, (b) know about them and are unsure what to do, or (c) know about them and — for whatever reason — just don’t care.

We have to remember that a great many people fall into category (a) and have no idea they have bed bugs. So your neighbor may be bitten badly and for a long time, but have no bite marks, no itching, and not see any bed bugs, until the problem becomes quite bad and they are crawling on the walls in daylight.

The bed bug blame game — in this case, blaming the “canary” who first notices and announces the presence of bed bugs in a building — isn’t fair. And it’s often not accurate that this person is the “source” of the building’s bed bugs.

And, let’s face it, the way bed bugs are spreading, I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for unknowingly bringing bed bugs into their building — even if they did so — if they did not have the awareness they were doing so. If you got bed bugs riding on a city bus or sitting in a library, who is to blame? Collectively, everyone needs to deal with the problem.

Bugged by Bedbugs suggests Halifax residents write to their Halifax Municipal Councillors:

I say anyone who has experienced the anxiety and disgust of a bedbug infestation, and anyone who does not want to live through the former, should write to your local Halifax councillor and demand legislation that places the responsibility of bedbug control on the landlord. Such a law would force landlords to keep buildings bug-free by regular maintenance, since an infestation would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The problem with laws that force the “tenant who brought bed bugs in” to pay for treatment, is both that pinpointing such a “source” is more difficult than people think, and also that infestations quickly spread and get out of control.

On the other hand, I would not simply stop with passing the buck to landlords Here in NYC landlords are responsible in most cases, but buildings still become badly infested, tenants still fear reporting the problem will lead to blame, and negative repercussions. The inspection system (where people call 311 to report bed bugs) does not work well, since inspectors apparently will not file a violation unless tenants can show them a live bed bug scurrying around in the home, in daytime. And landlords don’t necessarily get rid of the problem even though the laws say they have to.

I think Bugged by Bedbugs has the right idea about the problem here, but I would argue for a more complex solution.

We need to remember that tenants do have some responsibility to help keep buildings bed bug-free. I am also mindful on the terrible impact bed bugs can have, financially, on landlords. Bed bugs are not good for anyone involved.

Therefore, rather than simply push for laws which place the financial obligations on landlords, we need to also push for local government assistance to help landlords get rid of bed bugs in their buildings and keep them bed bug-free. Such assistance might include guidance on the best practices for bed bug treatment and prevention, financial assistance where needed in properly eliminating bed bugs from a building, and educational programs for landlords, staff, and tenants, to prevent future outbreaks. Ideally it would probably also include city-wide programs for dealing with infested refuse, educating everyone in the city about bed bugs, and taking reports of bed bugs and keeping track of where infestations occur.

Bugged by Bedbugs also has the right idea about contacting politicians and demanding help. Wherever you live, contacting your local political representatives is a good idea. Tell them about your bed bug experience and the impact it has had on your life, and why they need to take action to help residents fight bed bugs.

Halifax residents, you can find your Councillor here, and send them an email here.

• Halifax: where the bed bug “blame game” is the law
• More on Canada’s laws re: bed bugs and tenants: province by province
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• Bedbugs called “a new kind of roach”; building managment lies

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Earlier this week, there was the bed bug bill in the U.S. Congress.

And yesterday, an article in the Maine Switch (a website for those in Greater Portland) about the city’s yearly trash pick-up of bulky trash items. Not surprisingly, the day is a yearly impromptu festival for bargain hunters and curb-crawling small-time entrepreneurs:

Just like spring flowers, the sprouting of ratty recliners and beat-up toys on the sidewalk is a sign of the changing seasons in Portland. These cast-off belongings cluttering the grassy strip between the pavement and the sidewalk represent the city’s annual bulky waste pick-up. And like a siren song, yard sale buffs, bargain-hunters and freegans can’t resist this annual opportunity to turn trash into treasure.

I’ve known people who’ve practically furnished their whole apartments with curbside finds. One of the best was the gorgeous sleigh bed a friend found a few years ago. One of the worst was a couch covered in cat hair (and god know what else), which, thankfully, only made a brief appearance in another friend’s apartment.

But the main point of the article, discussed at length, is the dangers of bed bugs lurking in used items.

Oh, but beware those mattresses. Should you haul one home (like one hapless Craigslist poster did recently), you may gain some unwelcome roommates.

“If you’re picking up a mattress or other pieces of furniture, you need to be conscious that they may have bed bugs,” says Doug Gardner, Portland’s director of health and human services. “There’s no way to tell with 100% accuracy.”

That is until you install your lovely find in your home and begin to wonder why you’re suddenly covered in little red bumps.

Unfortunately, unlike Doug Gardner, the author mostly fixates on “mattresses,” whereas any used items might potentially bring bed bugs to your home. Although to her credit, the author later notes wooden furninture is also a problem, I’d stress that other items are also potentially infested. Many, many people throw out everything they own, even though it’s almost never necessary (and they’re not usually acting on the advice of bed bug experts). Throwing everything out can cost you lots of money, won’t get rid of your bed bugs, and will spread them to neighbors and others.

The article has two other Bedbugger points of interest.

First, because of bed bugs, Portland started giving their refuse collectors Tyvek suits last year for the annual bulky trash pickup day. Unfortunately, the city isn’t itself attempting to warn trash pickers about bed bugs, for example here, or here on this PDF flyer. Even a brief one-line warning would help. I understand from this article that they don’t want to seem to be condoning the practice of trash picking during the bulky trash days, but warning against it would not do so and would be germane to avoiding further spread of the problem.

Second point of interest: if you have bed bugs and rent in Portland, the article notes that your landlord does need to get rid of them. If not, you can call the city inspections department:

If apartment renters find themselves assaulted by bed bugs and can’t get their landlord to respond, [city inspections director Jeanie] Bourke’s office fields the complaints. Her team of inspectors then makes sure the landlord hires a pesticide company to spray the place down and that the residents follow a tightly regimented routine requiring the washing of everything and the sealing of clothes and mattresses in plastic.

Thanks to the Maine Switch for focusing readers’ attention on the dangers of trash picking in 2008.

• Portland’s public housing and bed bugs
• Chinches de cama en Espanol
• bed bugs at Pace University; bed bug buzz in Portland, Oregon
• Manhattan Mattress Mystery

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Good:

• Building management admitting problem publicly, posting notice.
• Notice asking for bed bug reports.
• Notice reminding tenants secondhand mattresses are a no-no.
• Notice is building-wide even though only one unit has apparently identified a bed bug problem.
• Even guests can see the note. This seems like fair warning to them.

Bad:

• Secondhand everything is a no-no, and building management seems unaware.
• Is management having a PCO carefully and regularly inspect every unit? 50% of people bitten by bed bugs do not react (with itching or bite marks) and may have no idea. It is really hard to find bed bugs.
• Tenants with no obvious signs may not know how to look. Having a bed bug dog traipse through every room might be best idea.
• No one should live with bed bugs for one year, as the scrawled note implies. Bed bugs can be treated, but not usually when you take people’s word as to whether they have them or not. They may not know, or may know and not care.
• Bed bugs that cannot be eliminated in one year from one unit implies they are not just in the one unit.
• Bottom line: if you have had bed bugs in your building for a year, I do not think it is true that management is doing everything they can to eliminate the problem and prevent it spreading. I do not mean that tenants are not also responsible; they are, and must fully cooperate with inspections and treatment. But from what I understand, the problem of tenants not disclosing or not cooperating with treatment is something management can deal with through legal channels.

Note: Please understand: I think the existence of this note is very good: very, very good. I just think that management and tenants may not be doing enough. But now I am interested in knowing: how many of you in bed bug infested buildings received a notice in the mail, or have one posted in your building?

• FAQ: Do I have to tell my landlord / co-op board / condo association / residents of attached house next door?
• Still more from Nashua, New Hampshire: fewer bed bugs at 23-25 Temple St.
• Bridgeport, Connecticut tenants have had bed bugs more than a year
• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)

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I’m wondering if there’s a legal duty for landlords to report an
infestation to potential tenants?

Dear Reader,

Local laws almost always specify the types of homes landlords are expected to provide (in good repair, free of pests, etc.) and so landlords are almost always required to provide a home without bed bugs, and to remove them when they appear. (We’ve outlined some of the local North American laws here.)

I am not a lawyer, but I’d consult one in this instance. For the record, I am also not enthusiastic about lawsuits for their own sake, but I do think something needs to be done as far as setting a precedent where not telling tenants about bed bugs gets a landlord in big trouble.

If you think that your landlord knew the residence was infested before it was rented, especially if they never treated it for bed bugs, you might have a case.

• landlords talking about bed bugs
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• More on Canada’s laws re: bed bugs and tenants: province by province
• added to the “Tenants and Landlords FAQ”: Washington, D.C. and Florida

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This issue is relevant to all tenants with bed bugs. If landlords had to tell neighbors when one tenant had bed bugs, it might mean more people get treatment more quickly (which would be a good thing for landlords, in the end, because the problem could be treated before their entire buildings get infested). It would help tenants, because they could be warned (and as we know, some people don’t suffer from bites, and so may have no other warning.) In the end, it would lessen the spread of the bugs in a building and, by extension, in the larger community.

And though no one will want to admit their building has bed bugs, in the end, it might mean more people talk about this and the stigma is lessened. You can’t run or hide from bed bugs, so you might as well talk about them.

Previous Presidential Towers posts are here and here. And there are hundreds more on the internets.

• Bed bugs invade Chicago’s Presidential Towers, and another Vancouver Island detox
• Escaping tenants leaving crumbs, marking the bed bug trail
• FAQ: Where can I read about bed bug lawsuits? Can you help me find a lawyer?
• Bowling Green Towers: residents organize to demand proper bed bug treatment in low-income building

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Given the cost and trouble involved in getting bed bugs out of a multi-unit dwelling, we hear every week from people who live in buildings where the bed bugs are not being handled well:

My bed bugs are being treated, but a neighbor has them and refuses to report them.

My bed bugs were treated, but the bugs keep coming over from neighbors.

My landlord told me I am the only one who has bed bugs. Now, I hear a neighbor had them before me. Why isn’t he warning us?

My neighbors and I are having bed bugs treated. And yesterday I saw another neighbor pull in a bedbug-labelled mattress from the trash.

These stories are really common here and on the Yahoo Bedbugger email list (see links in sidebar). You may think it’s hopeless when you’re in a building where the bugs can just keep coming. If the landlord does not get his or her act together, you may be right.

In most cities (NYC is one), tenants do have some rights. Look in your lease: it’s likely you can’t be evicted for telling a neighbor you’re being treated for bed bugs. If the landlord ever took you to court, think how the judge would receive that as a grounds for eviction.

Make sure you have read our FAQ on laws regarding tenants, landlords, and bed bugs. If it is your landlord’s responsibility to get rid of bed bugs, and s/he does not do so, you may need to work with neighbors to pressure him or her. You may need to contact city authorities, and doing so as a group, or as a bunch of individuals, might be more effective.

I also know it can be hard to deal with organizing on any level when you’re suffering from bed bugs, but doing some organizing may make it possible for you to get rid of bed bugs in the long run. You may, at the very least, get rid of them long enough to move out without taking them with you. In some heavily-infested cities, moving from an infested multi-unit to a smaller building, bedbug-free, is not a bad plan, but you can’t move with your stuff mid-infestation.

What can you do to help fight bed bugs in your building?

Educate!

Make a brief leaflet to stick discretely under neighbors’ doors. You want people to know what bed bugs are, what the signs are, how bites can look different on different people, how some people do not have itchy reactions but may have infestations all the same, how bugs can be very hard to find and catch (so spell out signs like the little black fecal specks).

Include website addresses for your city’s info on bed bugs, or that from a local university, and what your city says about landlords exterminating. Encourage people to report bed bugs to the landlord so they can get treated. If you want to organize a tenants’ group, you might include your name and apartment and phone if you want people to get in touch and are not worried about anonymity.

But, you say, “Nobugs, how can I do this? I don’t want to put my name or apartment number on this. My landlord may get angry.”

You’re right: s/he might. But you do have some rights. And if you are worried, get an email address from yahoo and enclose that, and sign “A Fellow Tenant”.

Here’s some general info. about tenant organizing from tenant.net, and more from Toronto and Boston, much of which will be of use to people elsewhere.

You might be braver if you’re sure another tenant (or more than one other) also has bed bugs. Your fellow tenants have a right to be warned, as you should have been. I’d be interested in hearing from people who took it upon themselves to notify neighbors, and also whether anyone has put together a tenants’ meeting, either building or community-wide.

Any other ideas for a FAQ on tenant organizing around bed bugs?

“Spread the word, not the bug.”

Update: 4th July, 2007:

If you want to read how one set of tenants organized, with a petition, check out this article. Very inspiring.

Reader Ben Cannon wrote in the forums that his landlord’s two PCO’s did not solve their building’s problems. And other tenants were affected. So here’s what they did:

[The Landlord] found two well known pco but they just didn’t do what we wanted. It was a difficult process to change pco and get all our neighbors to do the treatment together but here is how we did it:

(1) We first organized a private tenant (management was not invited) meeting in the lobby. We had to have two meetings (one on a weekday night and another on the weekend)
(2) We conducted a thorough survey of everyone’s experience
(3) We got EVERYONE to agree that all the apartments infested and adjacent/up & down neighboring infested apt must be treated at the same time.
(4) We then presented everyone with the new pco’s strategy and why we should change.
(4) After we all agreed, we wrote a detailed letter with everyone’s signatures expressing our concerns and desire to change pco.
(5) We presented this to the management company. The letter also included the dates that the pco and tenants agreed to do the services.

Management finally agreed because all of the difficult part were done for them. Yes, it was painful but completely worth it. Nothing in NYC is ever easy. Lesson here, unionize and work as a team and hire the right pco for the job - it makes all the difference in the world.

Bencannon

• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)
• FAQ: My landlord hired a PCO who comes twice a month, and we still have bed bugs
• New Britain, CT: how can building managers turn a good building bad? Ignore the bed bugs.
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.

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Sound familiar? I just KNEW her building was being treated for bedbugs, not for roaches. She said the management blamed immigrants for bringing the “new roaches” into the building (she lives in a senior complex that has over 100 apartments).

Why do they lie to tenants? Tenants in my building weren’t told we had bedbugs either when they treated us. I had to find out from seeing bedbugs and looking them up on the internet. When I went to the bedbug conference they said disclosure to tenants was **not** necessary except in San Francisco, and that building managers could have “chaos ensuing” in a building if they told tenants the spraying was for bedbugs. So they often don’t tell people.

Buildings are being treated for bedbugs and tenants are not being told? This is dangerous. It happened to me. It happened to my friend. We have to change the laws about disclosure. I believe San Francisco has new laws about full disclosure. Landlords and governments elsewhere are getting away with lies and bedbugs are spreading.

If a building is being treated for bedbugs, they should not be allowed to say the treatment is for a “new kind of roach.” Is Gail Brewer’s pending legislation changing this in
New York City? Regulating mattresses are one thing, but tenants should also be told if their building is being treated for bedbugs.

• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• New Jersey’s laws designed to spread bed bugs in rental housing
• Bed bugs in Ventura County (Thousand Oaks, California)
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

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It’s actually a great idea if you have bed bugs and people are moving into your building not knowing this. Most landlords won’t tell new tenants. Some landlords won’t do anything about bed bugs in the building. So take matters into your own hands. Let the world know your building needs help. Maybe then the landlord will do something, instead of letting the problem continue and spread to new people who move in.

Note: I politely asked the photographer if I could use this photo in the blog’s banner (explaining our purpose). She blocked me from all further communication. Chalk that up to another person who “doesn’t want to know” about bed bugs.

• Caryn, on fighting an infestation in 2004 vs. 2007, and a few words about the banner
• Bed bugs usually plague a city for a few weeks before being eradicated. Really, Waterbury Health Department?
• Welcome Bedbuggers!
• Brooklyn tenant not warned of bed bugs before moving in

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