bedbugs - Landlord Forum thread 354551

bedbugs by Anonymous on October 9, 2017 @16:39

I have a tenant who has been with us for over a year living in a single family home. Husband is gone during the week & stays in hotels which I suspect thats where they came from. Tenant brought by some bugs in a ziploc baggy. Exterminator says they're bedbugs. Tenant said they just noticed them in the last 2 weeks. Whose responsibility is it to pay the exterminator. Tenant is refusing to do anything about them & wont even reimburse me if I do. They have a security deposit that I can deduct it out of, if they don't. Do I have the right to mail them a 10 day quit for refusal to treat. If so how do I word it.

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Re: bedbugs by Garry (Iowa) on October 9, 2017 @17:32	[ Reply ]

First, check with your state's LL/T laws, and your local city's laws, to see how they address the extermination of pests. Some states and cities say the LL is responsible for all the extermination of them, no matter what they are, or how they got there. Others say it could be either the LL or the T that is responsible for their removal, depending on the circumstances of how they got there, and how long they have been there---(and also if it's a SFH vs a multiplex building.) In my city, in a SFH, if the tenant has been there for 6 months with no complaints of any pests, and then somehow some pests get in, the renter is responsible for their removal, at their expense. You first need to know your laws, before you can address the problem with your T. However, since it is your property that the bedbugs will stay in, after your Ts have left, you should at least go and get a gallon of bedbug spray, and give it to the Ts to use. Tell them to read the label on how to use the spray, and let them use it when they need to. It won't kill all of them, but it will hold their numbers down. Lowe's , Home Depot, Ace hardware, etc have the gal. of spray, at about $15-$20/ gal. So even buying a gal. per month won't be too much out of your pocket.

Re: bedbugs