Help Bed Bugs!

By brandon

In March of 2012 my wife myself and 2 kids (wife had 3rd baby 5 days after move in) moved into an apartment. We had never ever had bed bugs and can prove it. In may the tenant upstairs began complaining about bed bugs to the landlord. Dissatisfied with his response she began to sptrad the news and sent him a certified letter and began to withhold her rent. Within six months she was evicted. In june my wife startrd to get bites along with my 2 month old daughter. Everything got alot worse and then over course of last 9 months (last live bug found jan 2013) we have had just enough. Now we never filed any complaints or anything because of what happened to the laat tenant. we toughed it out as long as needed to be able to find another place and have the money to afford to move including heat treatment of all our belongings.We never asked for anything and paid rent in full every month to avoid reprocussions like tenant noted above. we have now decided we cant deal anymore and are preparing to move. Trchnaclly we owe rent for one more month but have decided to end our lease a month early thus using our last months rent. our landlord is demanding the one months rent. we refuse to pay. he has beoen treating the apartment w an exterminator the entire time (unsecessfully) Im not sure what to do at this point. Someone please help!

Edited on: Friday, January 18th, 2013 8:24 am

One Response to “Help Bed Bugs!”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

Abby

January 30th, 2013 12:18 am

Hi Brandon! Technically, you are still on a lease and ending it a month early may mean that you would have additional fees to pay and you also might not get your security deposit back. I just want to tell you that if you don’t pay the rent then the landlord may be forced for file for an eviction in a small claims court. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen.

On the issue of bedbug, the tiny monsters that started this all, it is the responsibility of the landlord to keep the building safe, healthy and livable. If he has been treating the apartment but the bedbugs are still there, then that must mean the treatments are not working. He needs to have another exterminator to help kill all the bed bugs.

If the landlord is not listening, you can file for a complaint and let a mediator help. The complaint is going to cost $35 with RPA but that would force your landlord to really get down to business and start killing all those bugs as soon as possible. If you think about it, that’s actually a better option instead of breaking the lease early and then paying for someone to treat all your things before moving.


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