It's unpleasant enough to discover that your apartment has become infested with bedbugs. But if you learn that you must foot the bill to eradicate the unwelcome critters, you probably won't be too happy.
Fighting bedbugs can set you back hundreds of dollars, and many people argue that it's a cost of apartment living that landlords should bear.
In fact, legislators in New Jersey are considering a bill that would make landlords responsible for keeping their buildings free of bedbug infestations. If an outbreak occurs in a building, the landlord would be required to pay for the extermination or face fines, according to The Jersey City Independent. A similar law recently went on the books in Jersey City.
What do you think of such legislation? Since landlords own their buildings, does it follow that they should be held responsible for keeping them free of bedbugs? Are there any circumstances under which you think it's fair for tenants to pay to resolve bedbug problems in their apartments?
Related Articles:
- Bedbug Registry Profile
- Keep Pests Away With an Ounce of Clean Prevention
- Help Fight Pests in Common Areas
(Photo © DC Photo / Getty Images)
Comments
There has been funding to some degree actually. A group of concerned entomologists formed a public information resource on bed bugs: http://www.bedbugcentral.com It’s worth a look, it has way more information than I ever cared to know.
Getting rid of bed bugs is everyone’s responsibility, however the responsibility part is where things get sticky. No one, and I mean no one, would ever intentionally bring bed bugs into their home, so playing the blame game just doesn’t work. Landlords have a responsibility to keep their dwellings pest free, and renters have a responsibility to report the problem immediately and to comply with standard treatment preparation and behavior. It’s really that simple. The sooner an infestation is reported, the cheaper it is to treat.
As an owner of duplexes only (not complexes) I would like to express my thought. In a case such as mine, it would appear that one of two households would bring them into the premise as they were not there when I rented it out. That tells me that the owner of the property would not be financially liable. As owners, I think that we are often looked at as the rich and the one responsible for the tenants who cannot pay or leave a mess behind. Quite honestly there is no wage that comes off this property so incurring such additional expenses can throw some of us into financial problems. Again complexes have many more units to collect rent than a duplex. Likewise they have many more options for infestation. Should a tenant up and move out, it would have to be taken care of and therefore revert to the property owner like ourselves. I would like to think there would be some sort of recourse with their security deposit however.
When one of my tenants happened to mention that his place of employment had a bedbug infestation that had him in a frenzy, he took every precaution with work and home yet had that infestation transfered to my duplex, I don’t think anyone would have expected me to pay the price.