Repairs, Maintenance Bed bugs after a week and a half

Status
Not open for further replies.

atreides85

New Member
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California
********
Question:
Should I insist that the management company help cover the cost to replace any furniture that needs to be disposed of because of bed bugs? Would I also be entitled(not sure if that's the right word) to seeing the tenant history for that apartment, and history of what was done in terms of upkeep/maintenance/pest control?

Story:
So I just recently moved into a 3-bdrm apartment with 2 of my friends. Previous to moving into this apartment, we had rented a house together for a year. And when we moved, all of our furniture and belongings were packed together in the same truck.

A week or so after moving in, I noticed a couple bugs crawling on the walls in my bedroom (master bdrm). I thought nothing of it, and just killed and disposed of them. Days after I started waking up with bug bites up my arms and feet. From my last count, I had close to 40 bites just on my right arm.

I explained the situation to the Management, and was asked the usual questions. "Have you traveled recently?"; "Have you had anyone come over?"; etc. I haven't traveled anywhere for the past couple of years, and the only people I've had come over were my parents. And even then they were there for only 5-10min max. As far as I know, they haven't had any pest issues at their house.

Even after telling her this, she insinuated that I was the cause for the critters. Since my room is the only one affected by them. She also gave me some paperwork to read up on about the procedures and such when instances of bed bugs do occur. The thing that caught my eye was that the paperwork did state was that "ALL" mattresses were to be disposed of, and any furniture with padding/bedding(i.e. couches, chairs, etc) be treated and/or disposed of as well.
 
Getting rid of bed bugs is a costly process.

Unlike most insects, spraying wont work.

You need a professional exterminator.

You'll be hard pressed to prove they didn't come from your stuff.

If the landlord won't ay, you'll have to get the money to do it.

I suggest you negotiate with your roomies and the landlord to split the costs.

The bedbugs could have been in the truck you used to move.
 
The Manager did say that they would be covering the cost of the exterminators coming in.

The only thing I can truly prove is that I've been living with the same 2 roommates for a year in a previous house, and had no incidents with bed bugs until -after- we moved into this place. I can also prove that all of our furniture and mattresses had been loaded into the same truck at the same time during the move. I'm not sure how well I'd be able to prove the whole "not traveling" and people over thing. Any other recommendations as to how else I could prove that these things didn't come from me?

I guess my real concern is, would the Management have any liability in helping cover the costs to our furniture if the lease doesn't specify anything in terms of damages done by pests?
 
I think you're on the hook to replace any bedding, clothing, and/or furniture that might be lost during the fumigation process.

ThIs will boil down to a "you" said versus a "they" said.

A client of mine once had to throw away about half of her stuff to get rid of these pests.

She failed to prove that the bedbugs didn't come from her.

Her landlord got five tenants to prove that the pests didn't start appearing until she moved into the building.

Be prepared to lose this one.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top