Legal options??
Hello All, So I’ve been having bug problems in my rented 1BR in Park Slope since January 2010 (I moved in November 1, 2009, spent half of December home for the holidays and came back to National Geo). I posted about a particularly bad fly infestation I had back in March: http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2010/03/flies_a_la_amit.php Anyway, since then…
Hello All,
So I’ve been having bug problems in my rented 1BR in Park Slope since January 2010 (I moved in November 1, 2009, spent half of December home for the holidays and came back to National Geo). I posted about a particularly bad fly infestation I had back in March: http://bstoner.wpengine.com/forum/archives/2010/03/flies_a_la_amit.php
Anyway, since then I’ve also had ants, house centipedes and daddy long-legs. Every time I ask my landlord for an exterminator, it’s always some excuse about how busy he is, and weeks later the landlord’s mom (who lives downstairs) will drop off some spray or Raid or bait.
Today I woke up and killed 12 flies in my tiny apartment before noon (and I am still killing them as I type – great way to spend Independence Day). I then had a lovely exchange with the absentee landlord, who basically told me that:
1. I’m making it up
2. He’s only legally obligated to take care of the rats and roaches (the people upstairs have rats, which is of course why I have flies)
3. This problem started when I moved in (meaning it’s my fault – he also blames the people upstairs for the mice)
4. He won’t fix the problem and he won’t believe me, but I can’t move out until my lease is out at the end of October.
Because he’s being so sketchy, I’m worried that he will come up with some crazy reason to not give me back my deposit even if I do stick out the rest of my lease — in which case I’d rather leave than spending the next 4 months stressed and not having slept, living in a pesticide haze.
So my question is, how do I make sure that I get my deposit back after I get through this ordeal? Is there anything I can do *legally* to get out of this situation?
Just for the record, we had a fly infestation like you describe. Initially I thought something must have died in the walls, but it turned out to be caused by massive amounts of bird droppings mixed with standing water in the air shaft and basement. (Birds were living in the air shaft.) The landlord wouldn’t do anything about the birds, but we covered up the hole where the hatched flies were coming in and luckily didn’t have further problems.
In the same apartment, we also had mice and massive amounts of roaches despite the monthly visits of an exterminator. (Like you, we also cleaned constantly and never left the garbage out overnight.)
I’ve come to the conclusion that exterminators just aren’t that effective against roaches.
In retrospect, what might have worked was emptying the kitchen completely, throwing out all containers and small appliances, and painting a solution of boric acid on all edges and cracks where the roaches will cross, then putting all future food into air tight sealed containers. You can’t throw out the stove, of course, or the fridge, and there will be more eggs in there that will hatch. But you can keep repainting the boric acid every month — paint lines around the stove and fridge — and eventually that should lessen the population considerably.
To be totally effective, though, your neighbors would have to do the same thing.
You risk transporting the roach eggs with you when you move. Throw out everything outlined above. Luckily most of our belongings were sealed for quite a while, and we saw only one nymph post-move.
Your landlord isn’t being responsive; he should show up but what do you think he will do? He will spray with buy spray. Go buy yourself some and stop driving yourself crazy. Then move in October. Why would he keep your deposit? Is this post real?
Thanks for all the responses!
Because I’ve had this problem since last winter, I’m hypervigilant about food/garbage in the apartment — I’ve pretty much stopped cooking at all and garbage doesn’t stay in the apartment for more than 15 minutes at a time (yes, I’m a paranoid wreck at this point).
The issue seems to be that the apartment upstairs has what seems to be a pretty serious rat problem. When the exterminator comes and the rats die inside the walls, they act as a fertile breeding ground for flies and other pests (I have a pretty extensive list of wildlife cohabiting my space at this point), and then they hatch and somehow find their way into my apartment, through various gaps in the structure (which I’ve tried to cover with caulking, steel wool etc. — but difficult to get to all of it).
I’ve called another exterminator that I’ll pay out of my own pocket so I can sleep for the next 4 months until my lease is out. What a nightmare.
>big gaps and cracks everywhere
where? in the walls?
In 10 years in PS, I may have seen a few fruit flies and a fly or two. If you’re having an ‘infestation’, something in your apt is attracting them.
I would stop dealing with the LL and just create a habitable situation for yourself. Diagnose the actual problem: the flies are coming from somewhere.
If it’s that your windows don’t have screens, buy screens and tell the LL that you’re just deducting them. If you need a door sweep, just spend the $12 on the door sweep. If it’s about your garbage, take responsibility for your garbage. If it’s a huge hole in your brick wall, alert your LL to the structural problem and fill the crevasse with great stuff.
The problem is resolvable. If you spend more than $25 on it, bill your landlord because these are things like screens he’s going to have after you’re gone. But have a little empathy for the man. Flies are way more of a lifestyle problem than a structural problem. I would react similarly, and I am not a sketchy landlord at all.
As a landlord i never had complaints about flies and if a tenant was to call me about flies, i would probably be dismissive as well because i think of flies as something that comes trough the windows and, as such, not really my responsibility. That said, if your complaint of flies coming from the inside of the building is supported by the opinion of a “specialist” i think your landlord would/should start listening. An exterminator visit for a small apartment should cost around $100. If the flies are effecting your life so much, you should consider hiring one regardless of who will pay for it. If the exterminator determines that the cause of the flies is beyond your control/responsibility (ie dead animal in the walls), you should mail the exterminator receipt with your next rent check and ask the landlord to reimburse you for it.
I have been using this Pest Control guy for years (but never for flies): Igal 917 478 3541. Give him a call, he should be able to help you. Good luck.
@ejalbk: There are big gaps and cracks everywhere. My windows have screens but they’re not the best. I’ve got the whole setup – bait, 2 sprays and fly paper in the windows, which I put up this morning. They haven’t caught any yet, but maybe that’s because I went medieval on them with the spray before they had a chance to go and get themselves stuck.
Sigh. So. Disgusting. This has been going on off and on since November of last year.
Reading this I have to wonder where the flies might be coming from. Unlike roaches, flies don’t crawl into an apartment so it sounds to me as if you have either open windows or perhaps a big gap under your door. If it’s the former, you need screens, if the latter, perhaps installing a door sweep will do the trick. How do you think they are getting in??
Also, you can buy or ask for fly paper. It’s not hazardous, it’s cheap and actually works real well (if not the nicest look!)