Bed Bugs...

[Jake Kozul]

This is the oddest questions I have asked on this forum, but has anyone put in a clause in their rental agreements pertaining to bed bugs? I was considering getting an inspection of the unit to confirm there are none at move in, and any infestation is the responsibility of the tenant. Thoughts?

[Account Closed]

There are a lot of addenda out there you can use, but if your city or state law says a landlord is responsible to take care of pests, as in a habitability issue, then your addendum wouldn't be worth the paper it is written on.  Ironically, the California Apt Assoc has bedbug addenda, but in my opinion, they'd never hold up in court, because CA landlords must provide pest-free housing under the requirement for habitability.

And really, there is no way to prove who brought in bed bugs.  In the building I managed, we had one unit that got them.  We figured it was the previous tenant who had flown family in from a 3rd world country to visit.  The next tenant was a woman who had also flown in from a 1st world country, but she'd been traveling.  She found bedbugs shortly after she moved in.  So, who brought the bedbugs?  Were they left by the last tenant, and hiding in the walls?  Who knows.

If your tenant fights you, depending on your state laws, you probably won't win any case saying the tenant has to pay for the eradication.  Plus, if you tell tenants they have to pay for it, they just won't tell you about them.  Your best bet on getting rid of them quickly, is to have tenants who feel safe in letting you know about them immediately.

The owner I worked for had another building where the tenants didn't tell him about them problem, and the bedbugs ended up infesting several apartments, by spreading through the walls, apparently.  It cost him thousands of dollars to get them under control - and lots of very unhappy tenants.

So, it's my opinion to just put in the lease that the tenant is to notify you immediately if they become aware of any pests, so you can take care of them immediately.  That way, you might have a case for making them pay for some of the cost - if it can be shown that they could have mitigated the cost by telling you sooner.

But, if you have to provide pest-free housing, the pest control bill is going to be yours, if they fight it, in my opinion.