Bed bugs
I live in a building with three apartments. I recently found bed bugs in mine arising from a sofa purchased from Craigslist. The exterminator found remnants of dead ones in the sofa. I’d like to know who is responsible for the extermination of the bed bug infestation — me or the landlord. According to my…
I live in a building with three apartments. I recently found bed bugs in mine arising from a sofa purchased from Craigslist. The exterminator found remnants of dead ones in the sofa. I’d like to know who is responsible for the extermination of the bed bug infestation — me or the landlord. According to my lease my apartment is suppose to be inhabitable and free of pests. Advise and please no snide comments.
this is another post from the original poster:
“Does anyone have a recommendation and general estimate to remove and then replace a separating 5×20 brick 2-story extension? Thanks.”
doesn’t sound like she’s a renter to me. sounds like she’s a LIAR!
And your security deposit is toast!!!!
This is a bogus post, people.
Bedbugs can travel from apartment to apartment, so the landlord does have an interest in stopping a conflagration quickly–at its source.
But they are not particularly likely to travel from apartment to apartment, which makes figuring out whether or not your tenant is responsible for the infestation pretty easy:
The first tenant complaining of bedbugs brought the bedbugs in.
If more tenants complain subsequently–particularly if they are near the first complainer–their bedbugs are your problem.
While the OP is being an utter douchebag, the landlord does have an interest in making sure the infestation is dealt with to her/his satisfaction.
If I were the tenant and wanted to change my douchebag ways, I would go to the landlord, admit responsibility and offer to split the cost of a really good exterminator. This is the win-win solution.
If I were the landlord, I would not worry about being lied to as much as I would worry about controlling the infestation. I would suck it up and gladly pay for half, as long as I retained control of the exterminator used and the protocol for getting rid of the infestation.
And if the tenant kept insisting, I would just go ahead and pay for it–I would bite my tongue. I would think seriously about whether or not I want to renew a lease to this douchebag tenant, but in the short term I would put other tenants and my own interests before any petty feelings of being screwed.
So OP, if you want my advice:
Do you want to keep living here? Do you need a reference from this landlord? Do you mind burning a bridge? If so, then be bigger than you are being! If not, then fuck it. You do have the landlord over a barrel.
I hope you take the high road.
9:47 if you actually are the landlord please post a new Forum post once you’ve resolved this and let us know what happened. Thanks and good luck.
Truly a small world!!!!
i think that the surest way to get snide comments is by asking people not to post them… i don’t understand what the question is? if you bring something into the building that is infested with bugs of any kind is is obviously your responsibility. why on earth would the landlord be responsible?
I think I might be your landlord.
Had you not said where the bedbugs came from, you may have gotten away with it.
Now that you’ve posted it on the internet and said you brought them into the apt, you are screwed.
And you better believe you are going to pay for it.
Or leave.
I agree with Brooklynnative – This should be the responsibility of the renter. I dont know legally if it is. In addition just to let you know bed bugs spread very quickly….. So the OP will some likely be infested – so he/she will need to buy or exterminate the mattresses, bed sheets etc… Good luck.. Good reason not to buy a couch on craigslist – Maybe you should contact the seller and ask them to pay for your extermination (make more sense than asking the land lord)
Can the bedbugs spread to the other apartments? If so, shouldn’t the landlord know in order to take precautions for the rest of the building? Liabilities aside, shouldn’t the landlord know they are in his building?
I would try to approach this in a conciliatory way with my landlord and accept responsibility for bringing them into the building in the first place. Good luck — don’t dodge the bullet, it is the right thing to do.