Summary:
Tenants rights and bed bugs are forcing landlords to revisit the rules that require that landlords to maintain their properties as fit to inhabit. Who is responsible for bring bed bugs inside the apartment. Is it the tenant or the landlord?
Dear Rick:
We just rented a large expensive home two weeks ago and haven't fully moved in yet. The day we got the keys the living room, master bedroom and master bathroom were alive with carpenter ants and ghost ants. The landlord just laughed about it. The ants were everywhere.
My husband found a hole the size of a nickel at the base of the french doors and fixed it, but still just as many ants. Finally we got the management company to send out an exterminator after we filled the jetted tub with water, turned it on and out shot thousands of carpenter ants and eggs. The exterminator isn't authorized to go into the walls or attic and the management company just wants their money. I'm afraid to move in and are we currently living elsewhere and paying rent on two properties. How do I get rid of the ants? Please help! Karen; Orlando, FL writes:
Dear Karen:
The presence of carpenter ants indicates a moisture problem in the house. Often, it’s backed up gutters, but it might be a roof leak or plumbing leak, as well. Carpenter ants only attack dead or dying trees so those palms you mentioned are a red flag. The exterminator should have explained why the carpenter ants were present.
By the way. Tell your landlord to stop laughing. Tenants have a right to a pest free environment. By law! You have grounds to sue if he keeps messing with you. According to one Renter’s Rights site:
If your apartment is unfit or uninhabitable, you may use a legal procedure called "repair and deduct."
In most states the law says that if the landlord has failed to fix what can be deemed a truly significant problem, you may, without the landlord's permission and without filing a lawsuit, have defects or other problems repaired. They, you may subtract the cost of the repairs from the next month's rent. That will get your landlord's attention, for sure.
Just remember, you can only resort to the repair-and-deduct remedy if the problem is more than simply annoying. The problem has to be a threat to your health or safety. You cannot make a deduction for discovering a cockroach or two, but you can make the deduction if you are fully infested with cockroaches and the problem can be documented that it has been ongoing.
Before calling in an exterminator you are required to give the landlord notice of the problem and provide access to your apartment. Be sure to put your complaint in writing and clearly explain to your landlord that if the problem is not resolved within two weeks time, that you will schedule to have the work performed and the cost of said service will be deducted from the following month's rent. Be certain to get dated and signed receipts from the service contractor showing exactly what work was performed in case you have to prove it in court.
The law says that landlords must keep their properties sound. That includes floors, stairways and roofs. Electrical service, plumbing and heating must operate safely. He must supply a reasonable amount of hot and cold water and he must keep pest infestations in check.
Here's the catch. If it turns out that he can prove that you are the cause of the pest infestation, you're on the hook for the service bill. If your home is not clean and he says the cockroach problem is caused by your unsanitary living conditions, and he presents pictures of your messy kitchen, the repair bill will become your responsibility. If you refuse to pay, your landlord has the right to take the payment out of your security deposit.
Tenant rights are "inalienable." This means most of the rights covered in tenant laws cannot be signed away. Your landlord cannot have you sign a lease document that denies you these rights. When renting, these rights are usually referred to as a "warranty of habitability." Should landlord fail to maintain a dwelling as fit to inhabit, the lease can be broken, and the tenant is no longer obligated to pay rent.
There are lots of good online resources on this topic such as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's website. Nearly every state in the U.S. also has a tenant's rights website online. Plus, there are plenty of books on the topic, too.
That said, do you really want to deal with the type of landlord you are facing? My advice would be to look for a different place.
For more bed bug information please click
here
.
Comments
billie
04 Oct 2009, 09:48
we had to leve our home of 11 years due to foreclosure by landlord. we
were forced to rent an apt in what they call "luxury apts" January 2009.
Since that time i have gone to the doctor with bites serious bites on my
arms and back. the landlord was notified and had the apt 'steamed
cleaned' and told us that we had to get rid of our mattress and boxspring
as we had brought them in. BULL!! they spent $80 to have this steaming
done and since them we had to dispose of our mattress and boxspring and
purchase new ones including the cost to have the mattress removed $40 and
Medications over $$350 to on cortisone ect. we bought a new mattress and
box spring and have bombed the apt 3 times. last night i found one on my
pillow. PLEASE HELP ME ON WHAT I CAN LEGALLY DO since they NEVER paid for
exterminator or bombing, ONLY STEAM CLEANING!!!!
penny huffman
29 May 2010, 20:51
We just rented a large home 3 mt ago and we were getting bite up manly my
son and daughter law in the one bedroom.Now my mother and i left the house
for about a mt.Due a death if the family but why we were out town my son
and his wife were getting bites really bad so they bomb the house 4 diff
time it seem to help for awhile and they seen the landlord & was talking
about come to the congratulation that we had bed bugs did think of and more
about thinking it came from the moving truck. they went and got new bed and
every thing thinking the matter was over with bomb the house again just to
be of the safe side.That was mid April we moved in Feb 26 2010 Now my
mother and I come back home and after being home for 2 to 3weeks we seen
that we also are getting bitten no my mother is 70 yr old and has kidney
problems and also a diabetic.Now I been watching my mother of in on for a
week and her bites are getting really bad and after change her sheet on her
bed 2days later I see all theses blood spot on her sheets so i remove them
and find all theses bed bugs all over her bed so i started to look around
her room and no need to say it was bad so i removed her from that room in
to mine and started to look around and seen my son room has some too than i
check my room only see 2 So I call a exterminator so he come and check out
the rooms and say they had to be here for 6 to 12 mt.now we go see and talk
to the landlord and he has talk to my son about this before but they came
to it must of came from moving in her with the moving truck but the
exterminator said no they were he for along time. now my question to you
who responsible for this because it going to coast over $650.00 and we are
only a working family and we pay our rent and bills on time but we do not
have exert money like that but we know it got to get done cannot live like
this .so who is responsible for this
thank you Penny
Ask the Exterminator
29 May 2010, 22:55
The best you can do is arrange a 50/50 split for the cost of the treatment.
You cannot prove the bed bugs were present before you moved in, so you can
argue for months, but what you really want is to be rid of the bed bugs.
Work it out with your landlord.
By the way, trying to treat bed bugs with "bombs" is a total waste of time
and money, as you now know.
brittany
12 Jun 2010, 12:06
Hi,
Me and my boyfriend are new tenants at a apartment building in south
Philadelphia. We are experiencing a bad case of bed bugs we have told our
landlord because I never in my life had them. Our landlord had a
exterminator come out once. We have been told and informed her that in
order to get ride of them she would have to do the whole building at once
and tent it. She will not comply and help us. Due to this me and my
boyfriend have numerous bits and scares from the bits, we have not been
able to sleep at home in a week.We have been paying for transportation to
and from peoples houses so we can sleep and had to also pay other people to
stay out their houses.What should we do?
Ask the Exterminator
13 Jun 2010, 15:54
Your landlord is not required to treat the entire building. Plus, tenting
and fumigating a building is very expensive. Even if your landlord agreed
to fumigate the entire building, the bed bugs will quickly return unless
you can figure out how they are getting into the building in the first
place. Your landlord is not bringing bed bugs into the building. The
tenants are bringing them in. So, who should be paying the treatment costs?
Everyone in the building is going to have to cooperate to get rid of bed
bugs. The preparation for treatment takes a lot of work. If just one tenant
fails to cooperate the whole treatment fails. I've yet to see all the
tenants in an apartment building cooperate. So, why should your landlord be
responsible?
wanda Martin
31 Aug 2010, 22:39
I waould like to know because there is a bed bug infestation in my
apartment building this has been going on for 1 month and my kids and I are
getting new bits every night. My propertie manager is not getting the
building exterminted what should I do do I have to pay rent for living
with bed bugs
Ask the Exterminator
01 Sep 2010, 12:27
Every city has a Tenant's Rights office. Do a web search for the office in
your city and call them.
Terry
08 Sep 2010, 08:07
After moving into my "efficiency apt" (6 months) a month ago I discovered
my apt. to infested with bed bugs. Do I have any legal rights to ask my
landlord to have them exterminated?
Ask the Exterminator
08 Sep 2010, 11:16
It depends whether you can prove if the bed bugs were present before you
moved in. That's a tough one. The landlord need only say that you brought
the bed bugs. Some landlords are agreeable, while others are not.
kara
14 Nov 2010, 19:49
i have lived in my apprtment for almost two year i have never had any
problems in tell lass month they moved a man in down stairs that has
complined about bed bugs and now i am having bite all over me and my son i
hAVe thrown every thing away and bomded i have let my mangage know
exterminator has come out and said we did not have anything were still
getting bite i have pictures from the man downs stairs bed and his bugs can
i with hold my rent intell they decide to do some thing because its now
spreed ing to other peoples house too i dont know what to im on angcity
pills from the doctor i need help
Ask the Exterminator
15 Nov 2010, 09:20
Your responsibility is to prove that you have bed bugs. Collect an insect
and present it to your landlord. Then, he must respond. Without proof, you
have no case.
billie
15 Nov 2010, 18:41
HERE WE GO AGAIN, ONE YEAR LATER..AND ONCE AGAIN BED BUGS!! I AM SO SICK
AND TIRED OF THEM I CAN'T SLEEP. WE MOVED TO THE FIRST FLOOR AND BOMBED
THE HELL OUT OF THE PLACE BEFORE WE MOVED IN AND NOW THEY SEEM TO BE IN
THE POPCORN CEILING AND WE SEE THEN IN THE CORNERS AND TOP OF WALL. WHERE
THE HELL DO THESE COME FROM AND HOW CAN YOU KILL THEM FOR GOOD? BETWEEN MY
HUSBAND, MY POODLE AND I WE ARE COUGHING CONSTANTLY FROM THESE BOMBS BOUGHT
AT HOME DEPOT. CAN WE GET SERIOUSLY ILL AFTER USING AT LEASE 15 OF THEM?
HELP!!!WE ARE FRUSTRATED!!!
Ask the Exterminator
15 Nov 2010, 23:17
Pesticide bombs won't get rid of bed bugs. If you had taken some time to
learn about proper treatment you would not have put yourself in harms way.
You obviously did not read the label of the pesticide aerosols either. You
can contaminate your home with over use of any pesticide.
Stephanie
30 Nov 2010, 00:45
Hello. I moved into my apartment in April 2010. Never heard of or saw a bed
bug in my entire life. My boyfriend was living in another privately owned
apartment when a person entirely infested with bed bugs moved in underneath
him. He and I would often stay at his house one night and my house the
next. When his landlord called and told him that an exterminator was coming
because the person who lived below my boyfriend was infested so badly, we
got very scared. We hadn't seen any bugs so we thought it was
precautionary. Well, they started the treatments and treated all of the
surrounding apartments - all had a 3 part treatment. Right before the 3rd
part to his place, I found 2 bed bugs at my apartment which is an apartment
complex. I reported it immediately, to which my apartment manager told me
the woman next to me had been calling and complaining of being bitten. I
asked my apartment manager if the property ever had bed bugs before and she
said no. We called the exterminator to come out and investigate and he
found bed bugs in my apartment, the person next to me and the person below
me. Mind you, they only checked those 3. While the exterminator was out he
informed us that one apartment in that building had an infestation
approximately 6 months ago and that one of the other buildings in the
complex was so bad that it was the worst he has ever seen in the 15 years
he has been dealing with it. My apartment manager is trying to say that the
bed bugs came from my boyfriend's house and that I am responsible for
footing the extermination bills of $750 for my apartment, $250 for the
apartment next to me and $250 for the apartment below me. She says she
knows they started in my apartment because the infestation is the worst in
my apartment. When we first spoke about the situation, she told me that I
would likely be responsible for my apartment but only my apartment. When we
spoke the next time, she told me I would only be responsible for what the
exterminator quoted me which was $750. Now she is saying I'm responsible
for the whole quote for $1250. I completely disagree. Is there any way to
tell with certainty that the bed bugs originated in my apartment and came
from my boyfriend's house? And can they by law force me to pay the
extermination bill for all of this? Thank you!
Ask the Exterminator
30 Nov 2010, 11:19
Bed bugs have presented apartment managers with a difficult situation. It
was accepted that cockroach treatments were the landlord's responsbility,
but bed bug treatments, because of the expense, have forced apartment
owners to draw the line. Determining who is responsible for initially
causing the infestation is nearly impossible. In your case, with the
manager denying there was ever a previous problem, while the pest control
company reports that there were previous issues, you have pretty
substantial grounds for not paying. You may have to go legal, but you
should check with your local Tenant's Rights organization for help.
Shar
13 Dec 2010, 05:43
How do I get rid of bed bugs myself?
What products work and where to buy locally.
Thanks
Kay Carlisle
27 May 2011, 13:45
Hi! It's been seven months already since I have cochroaches issue. I
requested many times pest control issue but never worked. Right after I
moved in, I noticed a lot of cochroaches exist there already... I asked
many many times... even almost 2 months straight treatments ... nothing
works... Roaches crawl everywhere my apartment not just even kitchen
area.
I tried to get somebody else not depend on leasing office's treatment too.
I am just fed up. I want to move out even though I will break the
lease...so I want to know what I can do legal action without damage my
credit if I break the lease... Do have to get exterminate first? before I
do any legal action?
Ask the Exterminator
27 May 2011, 14:08
Every city has one. Google "tenant's rights" along with the name of your
city to find your office. Call them for advice.
desperated woman
11 Jul 2011, 01:04
i just rented a place but havent moved in and i find a bunch of roaches is
the landlord respansible for fumigating?
Ask the Exterminator
11 Jul 2011, 09:30
The landlord is, in fact, responsible for providing you a pest-free
environment. That's the law in most states.
Vickie Cox
14 Aug 2011, 04:11
We moved into an apt. nearly 9 mos. ago. We had previously reported seeing
spiders, centepedes, some beetles. They sprayed and this seemed to help.
About 2 wks ago, they said they would be here to spray as we had requested.
Even though we had seen a few of these things, including a beetle or two
here and there would be on your arm, but it wasn't as bad as before. I told
them we hadn't called and maybe they had the wrong apt. so they didn't
come. NOW, we have just come to realize that the beetles are bed bugs. I
had never seen one before, so didn't realize that's what they were. We
found 3 lg. ones in our bed and one on our sofa that same night. My dog has
had itching problems, but no fleas, so I'm thinking he has been bitten.
After laundering the linens and vaccuuming the mattress, we found smaller
ones 2 nights later. We haven't reported it yet, but will. How can I show
that they were already here when we moved in, but we didn't know what they
were.
Ask the Exterminator
16 Aug 2011, 10:58
You can't. This is a common landlord-tenant issue. There is no way to prove
the bed bugs were already present unless you were able to ID the problem as
soon as you moved in. You've been there 9 months so you could have brought
the bed bugs in yourself.
Relle
20 Sep 2011, 19:40
I moved into my apartment 5 days who, when low and behold I find out that I
have bedbugs. All of my furniture wasbpurchased brand new from the store
and I have never had bedbugs before. So I call the office to complain about
it and get the woman at the front desk to admit the people who lived in the
apartment before me were evicted for being "dirty" and they had bedbugs. I
was not told this information before I signed the lease. They did a
treatment 3 weeks before I moved in, (which i am now just finding out
about) and I even have the maintenance director on tape saying " they did
not disclose this information to Me" do i have a case? I feel I should be
reimbursed for All Losses.
Savita Nair
21 Sep 2011, 10:18
Hi Rick,
I have been living with my husband in my rented apartment for almost a year
now and recently we have experienced severe bedbug problems. WE informed
the landlord and she arranged for an exterminator who has visited out
apartment 4 times already to fumigate the place. We got rid of our
mattresses, sofas that were possibly infested. However, even with all the
treatments, we still find bedbugs on the walls mostly and sometimes biting
me in the night. We bought a bedbug spray from riteaid which is effective
in killing the noticeable bedbugs. I am not sure what needs to be done to
get rid of these challenging bugs so that we can have peaceful sleep since
its been more than 2 months from the time we are suffering now. I dont know
even we want to move out of this apartment which the landlord is ok with,
how will i be very sure that I am not taking it alongwith me.
Ask the Exterminator
05 Oct 2011, 13:15
Getting rid of bed bugs requires multiple follow up treatments, spaced no
more than 10 days apart. Everything around the places you sleep (bed rooms,
couches) must be thoroughly checked. Every screw hole and every fold of
upholstery must be inspected. Plus, you must know what all stages of bed
bugs look like.
Ask the Exterminator
05 Oct 2011, 13:20
Relle: Certainly you have a case, but are you willing to spend the money
for a lawyer to collect on your losses? I suggest working with the landlord
in a respectful and conciliatory manner. You catch more flies with honey,
if you know what I mean.
hilda
13 Oct 2011, 01:03
hi I've been living at my apartment since may of 2011 the first month I was
here I discovered I had a bug on the side of my bed at the time I was not
sure if they were bed bugs I could take pictures I spoke to my landlord
only verbally and she said she could not do anything about it everybody
gets bed bugs she said she was gonna send maintenance over to check it out
well I bought some cleaning supplies and cleaned it up myself I do not know
if maintenance came over and it extermination I didn't see the bugs
anymore just a roach problem I never wrote anything everything was verbally
I am a single mom so I make sure everything clean my apartment I am always
at work and my son at school most of the time my apartment stay clean just
recently october 12th I found a blood stains on my sheets also blue stains
I turn my bed around on the mattress on the side there are bugs on I could
pictures I looked online and in fact they are bed bugs what r y doing now
my lease is not up until june of next year my concern is myself in my son
just because I found blood stains on my sheets please help hilda
Ask the Exterminator
14 Oct 2011, 16:38
Hilda: Did you bother to read the article? There is even a link to the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development where you can find out about
Tenant's Rights agencies in your city.
LA
10 Nov 2011, 22:00
Do not bomb for bedbugs!!! Cover your mattress and box spring with
certified covers! Wash and dry all of your clothes with hot water and dry
on med high to high. Get on line and do your research. Google it! The
internet is full of information on how to get rid of your bed bugs. It
happens to the best of people and stop killing your self over who gave them
to you because it doesn't help to dwell on something you have no control
over. Rest your mind and do the best you can to just deal with it one step
at a time, But don't freakin bomb, because it doesn't work and is bad for
you to breath. Make sure you read and follow any directions on any labels
of chemicals that you choose to use. The powder works really well too. Good
Luck people!!!
andrea
04 Jan 2012, 00:50
i have bird mites my new apts have pigeons all over i have poor health so i
have felt them since moving in i believe their in bloodstream not to
mention im a single mom of a one year old my hairs being eatn out & i
believe they came from dead bird out daughters window or bird nest in vent
with mold landlods been lying and wont help what can i do lifes ruinned
LA
04 Jan 2012, 01:30
In reply to Andrea, about Bird Mites. Have you called the Health dept.
yet?? Call them. That sounds like a health hazard and they will hold your
landlord accountable if necessary.They have people who deal with those
issues and should be able to guide you.I feel for you. I wish you well.
