RPA Tenant Rights Blog » Frustrated Renter, Landlord Problems, Legal Questions » Bedbug Legal Issue

Bedbug Legal Issue

By Emily

So here is the situation.

I moved into an apartment last August with two other roommates and around October one of my roommates was finding bites on her body. This persisted until January when she saw an actually bed bug. we called our landlord and they immediately took care of the problem and informed us we would most likely not have to pay because there was previous history of bed bugs in the apartment that they failed to mention when we signed the lease.
After the treatment was completed, the leasing office said that the pest control company said that the bed bugs were too small to have been there since the last time and we most likely brought them in. The leasing office then charged us. There is a statement in our lease that we signed that says if bed bugs are found in the apartment, the tenants are respoonsible to pay, but we thought due to extenuating circumstances we would not have to pay.
We believed we should not have to pay because the bugs had been biting for 3 months so they could all be so small that the pest control could make that assumption. It also seemed a huge concidence that the bedbugs were only in the room they had previously been in. We contacted the office and said we were getting legal council. 
The leasing office said that there was no need for legal council and they would talk to the apartment owner and let us now if they were taking further action. They then left a notice on our door last week that we did not pay and added a late fee.
My questions:
I am unsure if we actually have a legal case because of the wording in our lease, so if anyone can comment to that I would apreciate it. (My roommate is the one who has talked to the lawyer and evidently we have a case, but I\’m not so sure and I\’m afraid we will get evicted before it reaches court)
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YARPP

Edited on: Sunday, March 10th, 2013 11:33 pm
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