Penn Terrace Towers LLC (1505 On The Avenue)    |    Gretchen Williams    |    Peoria    ,    Illinois 61603    Landlord Complaint 23-3875

I have been a tenant for about 5 months now since October 31, 2013. Ever since 1/16/2014, I started to become concerned about my apartment. On 1/16/2014, a small mouse was caught in a glu trap provided by Jill Kraushaar (manager at that time) 2 days earlier after I addressed my concern of possible mouse roaming around my apartment. On 3/18/2014, I discovered a cockroach crawling on the wall of the living room as I was eating lunch. After these vermin incidents, I became skeptical about whether or not a proper mandatory routine extermination of my apartment took place on 11/20/2013, but never bothered to complain. On the morning of 3/25/2014, I woke up with couple rashes on my arms. Never been exposed to bed bugs in my life, I wasn’t sure of such possibility. However, as days progressed, rashes became worse as they started to appear on my legs, neck, and back. Yet, there was no evidence of bed bugs in my bedroom as I searched all over my mattress and the surrounding area. After midnight on 4/2/2014, I discovered 2 bed bugs crawling against the brick wall of my bedroom and finally found out what was causing the itchy welts. Since my first rash appeared, I have been sleepless for many nights due to my concerns of not knowing where these welts were coming from. Not only did these bed bug bites affect me physically, but emotionally and mentally. It was a complete nightmare knowing that these little bugs were biting me while I slept. I addressed my concern with manager Gretchen Williams today, and scheduled for an exterminator visit next morning. I explained to her about my lifestyle and my limitations to the possibility of introducing bed bugs into the apartment, and how they seemed to appear spontaneously from the walls of my bedroom, but the manager insisted that I still may be held responsible to pay for the extermination fee depending on the exterminator’s judgment of bed bug origin, disregarding the “warranty of habitability.” I even addressed my concern about a possible missed routine extermination back in November, but the manager stated that these were just pest extermination which wouldn’t resolve bed bug problems. This led me to wonder if there are ever maintenances held to check for bed bugs routinely. I even addressed that this apartment had bed bugs in the past, but the manager didn’t seem to care about the horrors I’ve been going through other than waiting for exterminator’s decision. I'm currently facing financial difficulties and very concerned.