This article is sponsored by My Bed Bug Finder
Bed bugs strike out of nowhere, a force of nature that shows up in an apartment or office or other cozy indoor setting seemingly out of nowhere. They bite, suck blood, and smell up a home with their waste. While they luckily don’t carry any serious diseases that threaten humans, their arrival can quickly lead to arguments between tenants and landlords.
In the case of one tenant in Pacoima, California, that argument quickly blew up into a court case worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to Apartment Owners Association News, the tenant suffered 500 to 1,000 bites over the course of several months. They asked their landlord to handle the infestation several times before resorting to the Housing Department for aid — and took the landlord to court.
After a four-year trial, the verdict came down in 2017 in favor of the tenant, awarding the plaintiff $450,000 in damages for the physical and emotional distress caused by the landlord in ignoring pleas to rectify the situation.
It’s not the only example of tenants suing over bed bugs. Several other cases settled the same year in California awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to people whose landlords failed to act on bed bugs.
Like the ruling in the Pacoima case, one of the biggest payouts for a bed bug victim ever, these cases have put landlords on notice. When bed bugs show up, it’s easy to play the blame game. Unless the property is a single-family residence — in which case it’s pretty clear who is responsible for introducing the pests and renter’s insurance can cover the cost of cleaning up the bed bugs — landlords should skip arguing and move straight to eradicating. Otherwise tenants might (legally) withhold rent, break their lease, or sue, as the Pacoima resident proved so effectively.
After all, speed is critical in these situations, as bed bugs reproduce in the thousands in just a few weeks. Plus, as cities open up following the COVID-19 pandemic, as travel increases, and as folks hunkered down begin to seek out new places to live, we may experience resurgence in bed bugs, along with arguments over getting rid of them.
Landlords and tenants alike need to remain proactive to avoid these types of catastrophes, using tools like My Bed Bug Finder or legal experts like My Bed Bug Lawyer to keep out invaders and actively reporting any evidence of bed bugs immediately to squash infestations that could spread to nearby units and homes.