Screening Tenants for Bed Bugs?
Prospective tenants have submitted an application for the 1 bedroom rental in my 2 family house where I live – which is clean and vermin free. I found out through the bed bug registry that the entire building where they currently rent has bed bugs. They are breaking their lease they told me because of…
Prospective tenants have submitted an application for the 1 bedroom rental in my 2 family house where I live – which is clean and vermin free. I found out through the bed bug registry that the entire building where they currently rent has bed bugs. They are breaking their lease they told me because of a roof leak and ceiling damage but I’m guessing it’s because of bb.
They seem pleasant and otherwise I’d like to rent to them but what assurance can I get and what can I require to ensure that they are not bringing bb with them. They can’t afford additional security but it’s not really the expense it’s the headache and quality of life issue for me.
Any thoughts?
if you feel uncomfortable dont rent to them but dont put then thru an bb scan or whatever. You dont have to rent to them or take your chances…..BUT BB are nearly mpossible to get out and they can infest a building very fast
I’m experiencing the same thing. I have some tenants going through the application process which isn’t quite complete. I talked to there current landlord and she stated the building has had a bed bug problems on and off. My building is bug free and I would like to keep it that way. Another problem is the prospective tenants are very difficult to communicate to due to language barriers.
I called my pest control specialist who is also an apartment owner to get any ideas from him.
Why can’t you just let them know that their address (from application) is listed on the BB registry? That is public domain; hardly an invasion of privacy. Did you call the current LL yet? (Did LL ask you good roofer, or an exterminator? Curious.)
Bed bugs are not easy to eliminate! The tenants probably know about their bldg’s problem. Hard to prove if they know or don’t; but if the DO know it tells you several things: they
a/ don’t care about you/r family becoming infested,
b/ may be irresponsible (going forward) if they think they have to pay a remedy (for
anything, not just BBs), and
c/ they will lie when it suits them and they don’t honor contracts.
If they are lying, that concerns me most.
A friend of mine had bb’s. She dry cleaned/heat treated/stored items for over 4 months/emptied heaps from her apt and etc. The BB service had a dog. They sprayed. Etc. A very stressful and expensive situation! And,
after all of that, she got them– again!! Absolute nightmare! She thinks they’re gone now-
Perhaps the BB dog can come in and you both split that cost? If there is no ‘alert’ from the dog it’s ‘welcome to your new home’! If the dog ‘alerts’ when exposed to their possessions it’s a whole ‘nother conversation.
Either way, BBs can be dealt with. Maybe not by you; but it can be dealt with.
pierre de taille: Thanks for the considered input.
CookieCutterBrownstone: Puh-leeez!
dogface even with caulking they can get access to the interior of walls through electrical outlets. They can crawl under doors and in the gaps between floorboards. They can be carried out into a shared hallway on bags and clothing.
i would first
caulk any and all cracks in the rental unit, to seal it… so if they do bring bedbugs in, they can’t easily move through the building
2) ask them if it would be ok to have their apt fumigated after they move in. -as a precautionary effort.
-as a landlord i’m terrified of new tenants bringing in bedbugs!
dogface
Are you going to prove you don’t have bedbugs?
To those who made helpful suggestions – thank you. I’m meeting with them tonight to discuss options.
To those with deficient reading comprehension – there is no signed lease – take a course.
To those who think I (as the owner of a 2 family house where I live) should bear the risk and the cost of negative conditions caused by a tenant, you come off as rabid morons. I guess the world owes you – but I don’t.
They signed the lease and now you have to live with it. Some of the suggestions are ridiculous. Heat treat big items like mattresses and sofas? Really? Just how does someone do this? Do you expect the tenants to pay for the packaging and delivery and expenses of this treatment?
It would be just as ridiculous as the tenants demanding the landlord heat treat their entire building for bb’s and hiring a bb sniffing dog and pay for it because of the concern of so many bb’s in the city.
you should go one step further – get yourself a bb sniffing dog and do random check of anybody entering the building. Besides I am confused about whole bedbug registry thing – what if somebody will enter your house there just out of spite. How are you going to live with this?