Turnover -- potential bedbugs -- what to do

[Jason Cox]

Hello and sorry this post is very long but I wanted to give the full picture of what is going on here.

Tenant was renting my SFH for about 1.5 years with no pest complaints. About six months ago tenant started complaining about a type of tiny non-biting insect called springtails that I had never heard of before. Although my lease says tenant is responsible for pest control I agreed to pay for a one time, two part treatment by a local pest control company done as a courtesy. Part one of the treatment was performed but the T continued to complain about springtails. I told him to call the pest control and schedule part 2 of the treatment, which he did.

Then the T complained about fire ants around the front door and said there was some soft wood around the door jamb. I told him I could come over in a couple of weeks and look at it and repair any rotten wood with bondo. He agreed.

Then about a week later I received a text from the tenant of a dead insect he found, claiming it was a bedbug and asking what my treatment plan was for bedbugs. I said I would have to get back to him on that. I texted the photo to the person who performed the two springtail treatments and he said it was not a bedbug and in fact based on being over there he did not think there was any kind of infestation (springtail or otherwise) in that house either. The pest guy seemed to believe the T was doing poor housekeeping.  I told the T that it was not a bedbug and he said he was relieved.

Then I went over about a week later to do the bondo repair on the door jamb that the T requested and when I got there the T had moved his bed into the living room and spread diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of the floor. I asked him what was going on and he explained that he continued his investigation after I told him the other tech said it was not a bedbug. He called another pest control place and they said it was a Tropical Bedbug and he wanted me to pay for expensive bedbug treatments. I explained that since it is a SFH and he has been there almost 2 years I am not responsible for bedbug remediation at this point and I was not paying for it. And that he only found one dead bug. And that if they were there he or his guests brought them into the house.

The T then complained about a small area of popcorn ceiling in the garage that had fallen in (a small section of drywall tape had given way and the piece collapsed). I agreed to have someone come and repair it. A couple days later I called the T and said the T had to clean up that diatomaceous earth and move the bed before the drywall guy came because seeing that stuff might spook him and make him turn around and leave without completing the job. Tenant then told me that he "freaked out" about the bedbugs before and that he knew it was not a rational reaction. When the drywall guy came that stuff had been removed and the place was cleaned up.

I thought things were smoothed out but then a few weeks later the T (who is on a month to month lease) gave written notice to move out on Aug 31.

At this point I am 90% sure there is no bedbug infestation in that house and that it was in this person's mind but I am faced with a turnover and the uncertainty of how to proceed. I don't know if there are any unbiased bedbug inspection services in my area -- all seem to be selling services as well. If I pay someone to come over there and inspect they may just claim I have bedbugs in order to sell me expensive services. The guy who did the original treatment doesn't actually do bedbugs -- they focus on ants, etc.

I do not want to take the unlikely, but possible chance that a problem is there and move new tenants in and have a fiasco and possibly get sued by the new tenants. How should I proceed to cover myself legally? Try to do my own personal bedbug inspection of the house once it is vacant? Should I just go ahead and have some kind of bedbug treatment done? Or is this something you would not worry about. What would people here recommend?

Thanks.