What do you do if you are renting?
out an apartment and the tenant tells you after living there for years that their apartment is infested with bedbugs (there were none before you rented to them).
out an apartment and the tenant tells you after living there for years that their apartment is infested with bedbugs (there were none before you rented to them).
Mahmoud
Really nice question
Christin K
Well you can't necessarily blame your tenants for this, I'll tell you that much. You can pick up bedbugs almost ANYWHERE. Take a trip and stay at a hotel--have guests who sleep over--even visit some concert, gathering, restaurant or other public place--and you can bring bedbugs back to your place without ever realizing it until you have an infestation. They are EXTREMELY easy to transmit and get. Bedbugs hitchhike in your clothing, shoes and even in library books you may get--and they stay dormant for sometimes years before starting to breed! So do NOT automatically assume that the tenants are responsible here, or that they are not clean people.
What you DO need to do is get a professional exterminator out there, have the place treated (it usually only takes ONCE), make your tenants pay at least half of that cost, and also MONITOR them to make sure they are following the exact instructions from the pro who comes out. They will need to remove all clothing, paper, books, mattresses, blankets, towels, curtains, shoes and rugs, move their furniture away from the walls, have everything sprayed, wash everything textile in hot water and dry it in the dryer on high heat, put hard things or books into black plastic bags they can completely seal up and put them in the sun for a week, cover their mattresses with bug-proof covers--and other things the exterminator will tell them to do. You HAVE to make sure they follow through, or the infestation will take more time and effort to eradicate.
The good news is they CAN be eradicated. Just do what the professional tells you to do. And don't cut corners doing it, or try to do it yourself. Seriously. I've been there--and it's unpleasant, but if you do what you're told, it works.
?
If no one else has bedbugs, then they brought them in, and in most places, they pay to get them out.
babyboomer1001
Ask him what he is doing about it. He is responsible for getting rid of them, not you, and he may decide to stick you with the bill. Make sure you have a healthy deposit. You may want to update the amount. Don't mention it's because of the bedbugs. Tell him it just needs to be updated to the current time, 2021. Check on what he is doing about it and ask for receipts showing what he did.
Elaine M
Anyone can bring in bedbugs on luggage after staying at an infected motel. Check with your city's health department about how to get rid of them.