Please Stop BUGGING Me!

[Andrea Finkelstein]

Hi all! I hope everyone is staying safe and sane through these strange times. I am scratching my head (figuratively) and hope a few can give some advice. I have a condo in a large gated community of both sfh and condos. Each condo block is an 8-plex (4 units downstairs, 4 upstairs). I have wonderful conscientious tenants who are having a german roach problem that Truly Nolan has determined is coming from a next door neighbor (I believe the tenant is Sec 8). We treated, sealed, and electrostaticly sprayed in the walls, as well as are continuing with bait and infertility products ongoing. TN said you can't really seal effectively for these because they are so small, though it somewhat helps. But, the roaches keep coming back, where they even crawl on them at night. Ewwww! City and County won't get involved. Hoa is now trying, but didn't do much for a year, and so far has claimed all they can do is send notices to the tenant and owner of other units (but, are now saying the they can request proof of treatment - although no idea what can be done if the other owners don't provide proof). I can't be the only person with the dilemma. Can anyone advise me of what I can do besides treating. I love my tenants and certainly don't want to lose them. Thanks in advance for any advice! 

[Steve K.]

@Andrea Finkelstein a large iguana can eat up to 20 roaches in one sitting. Maybe it's time you gifted your tenants an iguana for a pet! In all seriousness though, it seems like this has gone on long enough that leaning hard on your neighbors and anyone else involved to help you solve the problem is warranted. If you haven't already, I would reach out to the owner of the unit next door, nicely at first (perhaps even offer to help pay for the treatment if you're feeling really nice) and then with a letter from your lawyer if being nice doesn't work. Another course of action you could take considering the unit is section 8 would be to reach out to HUD with a complaint. You could also consider not paying your HOA dues until the association takes some kind of action and puts additional pressure on the owners to do something. Sucks to have to do all that but you can't solve a roach problem without the cooperation of the unit that is the source of the issue. If nothing else works, unleash the iguanas!