My roommate, Thomas, had lived in the apartment for two years. In May of 2012, T. found bed bugs in the unit. He quickly reported the problem to the management and was told over the phone by Jennifer, the girl who works in the office, that someone would be in to take care of it. No noticeable action was taken. Thomas assumed someone had taken care of it, and threw away his mattress as a precaution.
By that fall, I was living in the apartment and we noticed we were getting bites in our sleep. Until one morning I woke up to find a bed bug crawling over my shirt. I kept it in tape to show to the landlord. This time, we saw action from the management. Someone was in the next day to check my bed, and T.'s day bed for bugs. They were found and Jennifer gave us some pamphlets and information about the pests and the coming treatment. She also informed us that we were going to be expected to pay the $800 for the treatment. I did not think it was right for us to have to pay, after the failure of the management to take action earlier that year. I wanted to fight it right away, but Thomas did not want to at the time. So we agreed to pay the fee in monthly payments. Before and after this first heat treatment, we took all the proper measures to ensure the pests stayed away. We vacuumed everything, put protective covers on our mattresses, and washed everything in hot water, etc. etc.
In March of 2013, T. moved to Portland, leaving me with the apartment. In April, I began to find bites occasionally on my arms and hands, but we did not find any bugs when we searched for them. One night in May, my boyfriend woke up to find a bed bug biting him, he searched the room and found four more. We kept them to show the landlord. I had a lot of trouble getting a hold of Jennifer P, and ended up having to send her a voice mail, in which I told her of the bed bugs, and also stated my view that we were not responsible and would be taking lawful action if expected to once again pay for the treatment. It was confirmed that it was infested, and arrangements for a treatment were made. There was no talk about the payment, so I assumed it was covered. Until June 13th, when I received a notice that I owed the management $750 for the latest treatment.
It is the landlord's job to provide a habitable living space in return for the $570 I pay every month. A bed bug infested building is not habitable by any means, and it is not the tenant's responsibility to deal with the building's problems.
