Man Sues Over Bed Bug Infested Apartment
In Cleveland a law student from Case Western Reserve University filed a lawsuit against Reserve Square Apartments after claiming that his apartment there was infested with bed bugs.
The student, Joshua Bobrowsky, 26, is looking for $142,000 to cover the damages. He said that everything he owns is infested and three different apartments have left him with painful welts from being bitten. On top of that he has had months of emotional and psychological distress because of the infestation. Bobrowsky has said he is unable to sleep because of the bed bugs and that life is no longer enjoyable.
A lawyer representing Reserve Square Apartments is investigating Bobrowsky’s claims. No other tenants have complained of bed bugs.
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Myself, my boyfriend and two other roommates just moved into an apartment in the middle of May. We have never known anyone to have bed bugs, we have no used furniture, and we have not traveled at all or slept over at anyone’s house. A month and a half ago, I noticed what I thought was a rash starting at my head, going down my neck and shoulder and ending half-way down my arm. I didn’t know what it was from, and didn’t think too much of it.
3 weeks ago, I noticed a huge lump in my neck, and then quickly developed one behind my ear, one at the bottom of my head, and 3 at the top of my head. I couldn’t get an early enough doctor’s appointment, so I went to a Wellstar Urgent Care, who told me they had no idea what it could be and sent me to the emergency room. After spending 6 hours there, going through bloodwork, a CT scan, and numerous tests, they told me they had no idea what was wrong with me and sent me home, telling me to monitor them.
About 2 1/2 to 3 weeks ago, we found out that we have bed bugs. We noticed a bug and looked it up online, and sure enough, that’s exactly what it was. We immediately went back into our room and searched, and within 10 minutes we found at least 20 bugs. Most of them were enormous! The ones we saw were anywhere between the size of a flea to the size of a ladybug. This was during the DAY. Considering they are nocturnal and hide during day light hours, we immediately knew that we were dealing with a huge infestation.
After looking up more about bed bugs and seeing pictures of the smears and marks they leave on the mattress, I realized that I had seen them on the mattress about 2 weeks before, but I never thought anything of it. That day, we took all of the sheets off of the bed and started to wash them in hot water. When we tried to wash our comforter, our washer overflowed, so we had to go to a laundromat to wash everything. We vacuumed the mattress, box spring, and carpet several times that day.
The start of all this, and the time I first noticed the marks on the mattress, is around the same time that we had neighbors move in below us. My roommates’ bedroom is on the other side of the apartment, and they still have no bugs in their room. But our bedroom has no neighbors adjacent, so they must be coming from below. We confronted our leasing office manager immediately and they said that they had not received any other reports of bed bugs. They set up for an exterminator to come, but not until 5 days later.
That day, we started finding other places to sleep, and have not slept in our apartment since. We did not want to sleep on the couch, because this would infringe upon our roommates and they would have to stay quiet and confined to their room, and we didn’t want to inconvenience them for a problem that wasn’t theirs. I also was not sure if the bugs could be the cause of the lumps I have in my head and neck. Two days before the exterminator was supposed to come, I called the leasing office and asked if they could have them out any sooner, and I was told that they would call me back if they could get in touch with the exterminator. 2-3 hours later, I got a call from our roommates saying that the exterminator had just been by.
Neither me or my boyfriend had gotten a call from the office saying that they responded, so neither of us were there to talk to the exterminator. The exterminator left without spraying, saying that she saw the signs and it definitely looked like bed bugs were present, but because she did not see an actual bug, she didn’t spray. This made us enraged! One of the leasing agents called us and told us that we should try to catch a bed bug to show an exterminator so they would spray, which we did. We went to the office the next day and spoke to the leasing office manager, who had been on vacation the whole time. She was unaware of the problem, and called the exterminator. She told us to throw away our mattress, and when faced with that, we asked if we would be reimbursed for a new one, and she said no. After we asked her to be reimbursed, she quickly changed her story and started saying “Well, hopefully we can find away around you having to throw it away, maybe it can be treated,” etc. so we did not trash it. We called the regional manager and left messages, but never got a call back.
The exterminator came the next day, and the leasing office manager came with him. He treated the two bedrooms- ours, which was infested, and our roommates, who had no bugs. He did not treat any other rooms. We showed the exterminator the bug we caught, which was a baby. When he saw it, he said that since it was a baby, we shouldn’t have too bad of an infestation. When we told him that we had seen ones much bigger, he said that since they were in all the different stages of life, and on the walls instead of hiding, we definitely had a severe infestation. He told us that we did need to get rid of our mattress immediately, so we threw it way (we defaced it first so that no one would take it, and looked every day until the dumpster was emptied to make sure no one had taken it out), and the manager said that they were going to reimburse us for a new one.
The exterminator said that he would be back in two weeks. For the first week, we could/should sleep outside our room. For the second week, we should sleep in there to watch their activity and see how many were left. The first night we were supposed to stay in our room, we walked in to look around, and within the first 5 minutes found about 10 bugs on the walls!
After searching more, we found several more bugs. While my boyfriend was taking a shower, he saw one on the wall in the bathroom, and I found one on the wall in the living room. Our roommates still have no signs of bed bugs in their room. We were immediately killing them, and the smears from that are still on the walls. After that, we decided it would be a good idea to try to catch them instead of killing them, and started sticking them to pieces of tape when we found them. Since they are fond of the poster we have on the wall (they are always climbing on it and behind it) we taped pieces of paper to the wall so we could catch them and kill them. We did not stay there, and still refuse to. No one should be expected to sleep in a room like that! My boyfriend and I have both been staying where ever we can- with our parents and our friends, anywhere there is an empty couch and sometimes on the floor somewhere. The day after we were supposed to start sleeping in our room again, we went back to the leasing office to tell them that the bugs had only gotten worse, and even spread to new rooms, and to have the exterminator come back sooner. He came today and sprayed again, telling us the same thing as he did before.
We are worried about what is going to happen. So far, the management has been fairly helpful and considerate. But we don’t know where to go from here. Obviously it’s going to take a long time for us to get rid of these bugs. Since we haven’t been able to stay there for 2 weeks, our costs are starting to add up. The laundromat is very expensive ($3.75 just to wash a load, and $0.25 for every 7 minutes of drying) and we spent $20 in the first day washing everything that had come in contact with the floor or the bed. We didn’t want to take those clothes anywhere else in fear of taking bugs to someone else’s house.
Our backs are hurting from sleeping on floors and couches, and the loss of sleep is starting to take a toll on my work and my grades. Being displaced, I am going to go to the office tomorrow and tell them that I’m not willing to pay rent for an apartment I can’t go to, and that I also want them to pay for a hotel room for my boyfriend and I. I at least expect them to take half off of the rent, since my roommates are not displaced and can still stay there. They could argue that we could be sleeping in the living room, but now that we’ve seen on in there it isn’t safe. Plus, I can’t be in that apartment for very long because of the lumps I’ve gotten as a reaction to being bitten. These lumps are extremely painful. Aside from them, I have actual bites that are very itchy.
I am not currently too angry with the management. So far, they have down everything we could. They’ve called the exterminator every time that we’ve confronted them about the situation getting worse. They agreed to pay for a new mattress (I forgot to get that statement in writing though). But I have a few more things I want them to do for us, and I will become angry if they’re not done, and I am planning on speaking with an attorney to confirm our rights as tenants and see if we can be guaranteed anything. I am not the type of person to bite the hand that feeds, but as a customer I feel like I deserve more and I believe they are going to refuse the rest of the things we ask of them.
People have given me advice that I should have them give us a new apartment, or let us break our lease with no fees and give us our deposits back. But I don’t think this would solve anything- the bugs have been in our room for so long now that I’m sure they’re in all of our belongings. If you do your research, you’ll see that bed bugs can hide anywhere. They hide in alarm clocks, lap tops, and all other sorts of appliances. They can hide in a crack of your dresser or shelves. There is no guarantee where they are hiding, so nothing we have can be absolutely safe. I’m convinced that the lumps in my head and neck are from these bugs. They have gotten smaller and less painful since I left my apartment. I have an appointment with my family doctor tomorrow to get them further examined, since the doctors in the emergency room could not tell what they were from. If this problem goes on for any longer, I am going to demand that:
1. We don’t owe rent for every day that we have to deal with this problem
2. They pay for another place for my boyfriend and I to stay
3. They replace everything that we have to dispose of
4. Pay my medical costs
5. They pay for all of the additional costs we incur because of a change in lifestyle
If it comes to the point of them asking us to leave, I will ask even more of them.
Does anyone have any more advice?
I bought a new boxspring mattress for my daughter from a company in fort worth, TX well I thought it was new. And my started getting bitten up. I thought it was mosquito bits. Well a couple of months went by and I went into her room about 3 a.m. and I noticed that there was a brown bug on her pillow.
I turned on the light and told her to get up and when I pulled back her covers there were more tiny bugs around her I freaked out. I killed the ones I saw and moved the top mattress and saw more tiny bugs in the corner of her boxspring mattress. I was upset I didn’t know what those were. So I got on the internet and started researching and found out it was bed bugs.
She had black marks all over the boxspring mattress. I told my daughter to change her clothes and go lay with her sisters. The same day I had my boyfriend left the bottom mattress up and i thought I was going to throw up. There was so many bugs it was nasty. We threw it out side and then went to check my bed since we got it from the same store this year. Well come to find out we had it too just not that bad.
I was wondering why I had all these bites on my back as well. We threw the mattress and the boxspring out as well. We took them back to the furniture store and showed him he didn’t know what to say but sorry. So he came and sprayed the house and bought us new mattress.
Well a week later I saw them again in my daughters room so we told the furniture company and he had his pest control people come out and spray the house. I just took and cleaned all the bedding in the house. I actually threw my comforter and my daughters comforter away and bought more. I did care how much it was I will not let anything like that bite my kid again.
I have taken the beds apart in every room and vacuumed the whole house floors, cracks and all. I want to see if they come back. If they do I will tell the furniture man to bring the pest control people out until they are gone. I never had anything like that in my life.
I can’t even sleep at night any more. I am constantly looking under my sheets and my kids bed at night. I keep a flash light beside me all night. I always fell like something is crawling on me. I can’t believe some one would sell you used mattress or remade at that. This has been quit a nasty experience for me. I feel like we will never get rid of them. If he can’t get rid of these pests I will sue.
Well to all you landlords.. i live in an apartment in troy mi and they had to treat our building for bed bugs..due to people above us. They drilled holes into our walls and said that the beg beds would be dead and not to worry. well since they drilled the holes i have been getting bitten really bad. so we called the bug guy and he said we did not have bed bugs..
That was a month or 2 ago..now since my bites are getting worse my b/f pulled back our mattress and there they were. My point is it isn’t some tenants faults. This apartment complex knew who had them so they will know we didn’t bring these bastards in..and THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!
The bug guy did not check good when he was here a few months ago and its not our fault they hired a laZY unprofessional! Its so bad i don’t even want to live here anymore afraid they will just come back.. we have to get rid of our bed and couches which is expensive and we honestly cant afford all this right now to begin with so compensation would be the right thing to do for us and were going to talk to them about it.
We took pictures of my bites and our bed ..if they do not compensate us then we will fight.. not to mention we have a 4 1/2 month daughter and thank god she isn’t getting ate up and we think its because they didn’t drill in her room (wouldn’t let them..her room is way too pretty :) ) but that would have been a whole different thing if my baby was getting bitten by bed bugs!!! so i think landlords and tenants should take responsibility if they did it!
Here are the pictures (click on them to see large image):
Good luck suing a tenant Mr. Landlord! You CAN’T PROVE which tenant was ground zero.. PERIOD.
Every person reacts to bed bug bites differently. A neighbor could have gotten them and had no reaction to the bites, therefor not knowing they had them. The bugs could of then moved to the neighbor’s apartment and infested there. If that neighbor is hyperactive to the bites then they would react to it in an extreme way. You can not sue your tenants for that. One there is no proof… Two it is legally the landlords responsibility to maintain his property, not the tenants. The tenants can help. However, they are not the ones who get sued if the problem becomes a large issue. It is you.
If you knew anything about the law at all then you would know this.
I have been fighting our bed bug infestation since we moved into our home in January. We went from a full blown infestation, seeing dozens of nymphs and adult bed bugs come out at night, to hardly seeing any of them at all. At first we tried fogging them, spraying them, washing every piece of laundry we own. NOTHING WORKED. Then we did some research and found DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. We sprinkled it all around the house and it’s WORKING! We see dead bugs everywhere and I actually feel confident that very soon I will never see another of those blood sucking bastards again!
NOTE TO ALL: DO NOT USE FOGGERS! THEY WILL ONLY DISPERSE THE INFESTATION, MAKING IT HARDER TO CONTROL. LOOK INTO USING DIATOMACEOUS EARTH!
Good luck everybody! :)
There are renters who lie to the landlord about bed bug infestations because they are too embarrassed to say anything until the infestation gets out of hand and spreads to the other apartments.
If these renters had common sense, they would report the infestation in the beginning so it could be properly treated
So if my neighbors had a bedbug infestation and it spread to my apartment, I would sue him and make him pay for all the expenses because he started the problem
we moved into our apt. in bensalem pa, feb 2010. a month later I started getting bit up real bad at night . there was no signs of bed bugs like on the mattresses or anything . Me and my boyfriend called the office and told them we have bed bugs and we also have a set of twins who live here. they sent out a exterminator the next day everything had to be in bags and all cloth had to be washed.
The treatment for the bed bugs was a 3 step treatment. We didn’t live in our apt. for 2 and a half weeks while this process was going on. come to find out that the people below us have bed bugs real bad. from what the exterminator said they have it so bad that there is blood from them all over their walls.
It’s been a little over a week since the last treatment and I’m starting to get bit again and so is my one daughter. Apparently when there is bedbugs the whole building is suppose to get treated because they will just run to the next apt. Well the down stairs people wont’ get treated so I believe this is going to be a never ending process until we move out next income tax season. this is just bad!
Oh guys… I understand. We have had this problem for last couple weeks. I have an idea… Let’s catch couple bed bugs and put them in land lords’ cars or offices… I am so close to do it.
BTW the city government buildings in El Cajon habe been infested, call the city code compliance office and the secretary will tell you; that’s how I found out. El cajon is having an epidemic of them right now and the code compliance officer I spoke to informed me quite matter of factly that you get bedbugs from being dirty and having pets.
I corrected him and he got all huffy with me but the point is government officials are ignorant of the matter so don’t expect a lot of help. It’s an epidemic that no one person is to blame for. You can get them from the chair in your doctor’s waiting room, the chair in the wic office, the chair at school or work that others have sat in, even from the bus or the restaurant so don’t let anyone tell you you’re dirty if you have them.
It’s an epidemic and the landlord has the responsibility to treat against it and contain it, not point fingers at individuals for where they may have been in public and accidentally brought one home. In an epidemic, those responsible fore containment contain, they don’t point finger s and stick their heads in the sand to avoid having to come out of pocket . When you buy a building, you don’t buy a money machine/free unlimited supply ATM, you buy a responsibility that is not 100% profit; some of the rent has to go back in to maintenance and repair, but first and foremost:
* When you bought that building you bought a responsibility!! guess what else you bought? a risk!! yeah that’s right when you bought the building you understood you were going to be responsible for complying with the law and maintaining health and safety. when you take a risk it’s for better or worse and when the rents come in it’s better but when there’s a problem it’s worse and you don’t get to skip the worse part. it’s people like you who can’t keep marriages together and are ruining our society and our kids because you only want fair weather responsibility!! suck it up and do what you’re obligated to do and quit looking for excuses to sit and watch the problem get worse while not spending any money on it. it’s you landlords; fault that the problem is spreading because if you took care of it immediately like you should people wouldn’t be carrying them around and infesting public places where others pick them up and bring them back home to their apartments unknowingly. that’s how all of this is spreading.
all due to landlord apathy!
Beware of the Holiday apartments on 110 w renette ave, el cajon, california. They are infested because an older black lady wh collects cans and dumpster dives (I won’t say her name cus I might get sued) in an upstairs apartment has been infested with them forever. They traveled through the building and are now in most apartments.
The landlords are irresponsible and try to blame each tenant individually but the manager knows who started it because he got a lamp from said lady and it had bedbugs in it so he threw it away and that was before others started complaining. She is a nasty, dirty, smelly old lady and I personally witnessed her leave huge loads of laundry sitting in the laundry for hours or even days before she would come back and wash it, and the laundry was seen to have bed bugs crawling literally all over it.
The big black guy who is half owner yells and calls names to try to intimidate people so that they get scared and stop complaining of the problem. Let me tell you something landlord on this forum (kim?) the first person who complains is NOT ground zero. They are just the first person who complains. I know one tenant in that building who is old and on sec 8 and she flat out told me she won’t complain because the big beefy young black landlord scares the crap out of her and she’s too old to move, doesn’t know how she’d do it. So she’d rather sit and suffer in silence.
You can not prove that the first person who speaks out about it is the first person to notice them or even the first person who brought them in. Some people are just nasty and will live with them because they don’t care, and some are too timid to say anything. BTW the older lady who is scared to speak is also black so though I have a bad opinion of the tenant who brought them I am not racist as this scared black lady I speak of is a dear friend.
Don’t rent a Holiday apt on w renette in el cajon the landlords have known of this bedbug infestation for more than a year now and purposely done nothing because they know all they have to do is blame each tenant who complains and the tenant will get confused because most don’t understand the law. You can withhold rent in CA to to correct situations that should be corrected by the landlord under implied habitability but aren’t.
Withhold rent, people, it’s the only way to get their attention because they don’t care about being decent human beings, they want us to shut up go away but hand them the rent check first. Then shut up and go away til next month’s rent is due. Stop putting up with it!!!
Hi I am traumatized by bedbugs, they travel from my son great grandmother house through his baby bag. I never even heard of these blood sucker until they bit my 3 year old daughter over 50 times. My daughter still has the scars and as a mother you feel helpless.
I was also bitten but not to the extreme of my daughter. I educate myself and other on this epidemic. I honestly feel that once you come across a bed bug or you are forced to deal with them you are never!!!!!!! goin to be the same. They travel with you on your clothes , they can survivie with on a bite for months.
I just tell people to take extra caution when geting anything that is used. when you have small children who can not speak for them self look for the signs dont be in denial like I was investigate .
Well I wish you the best of luck with dealing with the blood suckers!!!!!!
According to News, Los Angeles, America is having a bed bug epidemic. The government is ignoring the problem probably since it doesn’t cause illness. Seems that when the government reduced the amount of DDT in chemical preparations and with the heavy immigration and tourism, we were left open for attack by bedbugs. I suggest that we all report our stories to the media — local newspapers and TV shows. We have to bring attention to this problem to get federal authorities to launch efforts toward eradication on a national scale. The Environmental Health Depts. are aware of the problem but do not have funds to fight the problem or to even send investigators out to report. As far as I know, the best way to eradicate bed bugs is with a heat treatment with heat at 115 degrees or better. This is only a temporary measure. If I think of anything else, I’ll post.
Good luck with your efforts to eradicate.
As a tennant I just wanted to say there are good landlords. The neighbour underneath me got bedbugs, about a year ago, and while I don’t believe it was anyone’s fault, she did bring the bedbugs into the house by bring in used clothing. She was very up front about it and warned us all (it’s a small building). The exterminator came and did all the ajoining apartments, they also did a follow up at the 6 month mark.
Now I have gotten bedbugs as well, I was warned they could come up through the walls etc., the bites affect me quite badly, and I’ve got itchly painful welts on my arms and ankle. I haven’t seen any of the bugs in the house, and I haven’t even been bitten that many times and this is incrediably upsetting.
I called my landlord and he advised me that he would be calling the exterminator back in asap to re-do my apartment, as well as to do the apartments that ajoin mine. I don’t think anyone wants to spread bedbugs but I honestly have to wonder about some people who keep moving when they have them. The bugs spread so easily, make sure you’re not taking bedbugs w/ you, or sharing them with others.
Hello,
I have the same bed bug problem. I had them through away my couch and bed. My dad is the landlord. I called him and had the pest control company come out 5 times to spray everything. they told me to exactly do as they instructed.
I’ve seen them crawling all over before but I haven’t seen one since yet. been up trying to catch these damn things in the act but i haven’t found one. I have scars on my arms and one leg from bed bug bites. I don’t know if they’ll ever go away.
I’m afraid to bring any one o my home now. I’m loosing a lot of sleep cause when i wake up i might see something on my arm and freak out. My father says that if I see one call me and he’ll have them come out and spray.
I’m going Nuts over this and i don’t know what to do about my arms if any buddy can suggest. but i get that crawling feeling on me but i don’t see them. One Night I was siting at my computer chair and felt something bite me! Sure did but i didn’t see anything except a small mark. red not a welt like they leave me. I cant concentrate on my job due to loss of sleep. I’m so upset and angry about the scars on my hand!
Somebody please tell me what to do. Like blemishes small red. I’m hurt angry and about to give up on life because of these damn things!
Also Forgot to mention above that I have put some glue boards to catch anything around my bed and base boards, so far nothing found except spiders, that’s it!
If a tenant pays the company to spray for a bed bug infestation, which does not work, then moves out, are they required to pay for a second spraying even if they are not living there? I’m at Pepper creek apartments el cajon
Hi I’ve had bed bugs for over 3 months i sprayed and got a new bed and vacuumed the room then washed all cloths know i go in my bed i see like 2 on my sheets and little baby my back is full of bites and welts like i lost my girl friend over this and 400 dollars i live in a apartment building for over 6 years and just we found out we have them what can i dooooooo? help me please
My family and I live in the New st apartments in Plymouth. 5 minutes from Wilkes Barre, Pa. We have always kept our house clean and the neighbors in the same row of apartments keep a clean house too.
The neigbors across the parking lot complained of finding a cockroach looking bug after their next door neighbors moved in………..and For a long time the apartment next to us was empty. Then one day we got new neighbors. Bringing all this junk on this old pickup truck. They have since moved out and all of a sudden we have been trying to figure out just what all these bites we have been getting are? My mother who sleeps downstairs on the couch started getting covered in bites about 3 to 4 months ago… while I never had one single bite that whole time………… i told her its probably from the 12 year old couch she sleeps on every night…………..
We have 2 cats………which sleep both downstairs on that couch and on my bed…..at night….for a few years now……..since we have thrown out those couches………I started to get bites on my body…………I don’t understand how for 4 months I don’t get bit then once the couch is gone these pests all of a sudden wanna leach onto my cats and join them in my bed…..
I can not wash my blankets and pillows anymore or they will fall apart. We have been cursed with bedbugs and now we are quickly losing our minds. My mother is not the brightest bulb in the box and while I was out one day…… Bombed the one upstairs room while the cats were downstairs……………they started acting strange and licking themselves…………and hurdled together rocking back and forth all confused……..as well as her not leaving while setting it off…………all three of them got sick………………………..she almost killed my animals that day . and yet……………….after all of that drama These things are still biting….I just found one crawling on my wall….. We have invested in a steamer. Thrown out our couches. & Bombed the place. We didn’t have much before this all started..but not we really don’t have anything…we don’t even have a place to sit now.
But still are finding these fucking things. All the bed bug sprays and bombs have not worked. I have bedbugs dancing on my last nerve. I have found myself relentlessly searching on google for a solution………….every site says the same useless things………………. i have found nothing is working……….i need to Make this stop.
i moved into another place of my landlord , i was in other place 4 years, so he know i had no kind of bugs.
i moved into this place 3 months, the people before had a large dog so thought i was dealing with flee bites. i have 2 very small dogs, found out it was bed bug bites they was very badly bitten. my bed was bad, so i was bitten everywhere, the owner is taking care of problem knowing it was not my fault.
I have to remove and wash all clothing and remove it from the house. i feel the owner needed to check the house better , I’m on section 8 something need to be, done, cause i cant move tell Oct. 2010 unless section 8 lets me break my lease. i don’t know what to do except cry a lot and itch. anyone with info about my problem please help……………
If anyone knows of a lawyer who will take my case of bedbug I need his name or number. Emothional, physical and lost everything I had the landlord was noncompliance didn’t spray or even warn me of my next door neighbors bed bug problem.
Left his mattress sitting out by the dump for two weeks of course the bugs crawled back in under the door to feed. Well I want a lawyer to help me sue.
I have already got just about all the info and files done pictures and all. My son visited he was bitten over 40 times have pics on that too he also had to seek medical treatment. The skin feel off my feet for exposure to the chemicals they sprayed with. I am still under medical care. SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE !
I had to pay $900 dollars for bedbugs and it was a extremely poor attempt at pest control. I moved out six months later, and now I’m told I have to pay for a second spraying, even if I’m not living there. Does this sound legal? I think once the tenant moves out and a decision is made to spray again, the company is liable, not the former tenant!
Hillcrest Apartment – Newbury Park, CA
I moved here 5 days back, and my arms and legs are bitten by bed bugs. Every night I am catching 20-30 bed bugs and crush them.
Looking for attorney to sue them.
Whether it is a tenant or a landlord . Doesn’t matter. I have a bug problem i lived here for three years never have i had to deal with bed bugs before 6 months ago. When i 1st moved in the landlord had a regular exterminator spray. Well he fired the guy. So now what. Even if i break down and get an exterminator, what good would that do if the other 7 tenants in my building don’t spray. NEVER ENDING CYCLE RIGHT!.
Thing is we all have to work together. THIS IS WHY ITS BECOMING AN EPIDEMIC. People always wanna point the finger. Never doing anything about it. Well i can tell you I researched everyday trying to fight this on my own from rubbing alcohol, throwing away a lot of furniture, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum, chemicals, putting everything in a air tight bag washing everything in hot water, and throwing it in the dryer for extra long time.
MY POINT IS I CANNOT DO IT ALONE I DO NEED HELP STILL DO. What makes it so bad is I’m allergic to bed bug saliva. I have lost my job because of all the welts i have from them biting me. I even called the health department only to be told your on your own. So really what choice do you leave anyone? Only thing to do is sue or call a news station or something all dramatic. When you guys could just be civil and work together.
As a landlord I have had my first experience with bed bugs, and it is a nightmare for everyone involved. Obviously the tenants brought them in to the apartment but we are held responsible for exterminating them. It is a very difficult situation when all tenants NEED to do their part to help get rid of them..We have no control over the tenants encasing the mattresses or decluttering or washing/ drying bedding/ clothing furniture..
This has put a tremendous financial burden on us and can’t wait to sell this property. The minute my tenant noticed bugs I was on the phone the same day with the exterminators & within a couple days the place was treated, over and over again. Not all landlords are rich & nasty..
We are just trying to get by too!!
To Tenants Fault,
You are a landlord and your statement clearly shows the problem with you types. You feel that it is the tenants fault but it is really your fault. Its people like you who cause these hardships for so many tenants!
You said “She wants me to pay the $350 extermination fee. Why should I pay to get rid of them if it is obvious she or her boyfriend brought them in” – so while your fighting with your renter who you believe brought the bedbugs in, you are allowing the rest of the tenants to become infected instead of acting fast to get rid of them.
You are making all the money and it’s a risk you take in that business, so do the right thing and pay for the bed bug treatment and worry about getting your money back later.
Don’t be the problem, be a solution to the problem!
Hi my name is Lisa and I’m going through the same problem! it is out of control! and the worst thing about no one wants to help! i tried every thing with the law doing research all the time to find some kind of help??
I had been evicted from there now because of the bed bugs when they were there long long before my husband, 17 month old daughter, 6 month old daughter and myself. We are going crazy now it is the dead of winter with no place to stay with two little babies.
I don’t know where to turn for help we lost everything we couldn’t even have a nice Christmas because of all this stress of the bed bug infested place!
I just feel bad for my lil girls cause they have no clue what is going on!! How can a landlord not even have a heart to see what he is putting us through? I wish it was him carrying your kids out in freezing cold weather at 2am because we can’t take being bit!!!
I wish someone will see this and help us we are such a loving close family and this is tearing us apart. It is very sad..i had to move back in with my parents for right now…hopefully we can get back up on our feet… in my whole life i never imagined this to happen i pray to my lord every day to please help us get through these extremely hard times!
If anyone see’s this that can help us, perhaps a lawyer to help us sue the landlord over this bed bug infested place or any help from any where, please let me know!!! there is so much more that went on with this landlord that it’s unbelievable, I wish i could type it all! I live in pa scranton/wilkes barre area just anyone can help from this area please leave information
“thank you and god bless”, I wish luck to everyone else that are going through hard times, stay strong that’s all you can do.
From what I have read in the previous blogs, you tenants think you’re all angels and landlords are all evil. Well I am a landlord and I see all the STUFF you tenants pull every day, 24/7. You make messes and you demand we clean up your STUFF but when we tell you to take responsibility for your actions, you go ballistic.
Most tenants I have met are mean, deceitful, uncaring, dirty and despicable. Here is an example:
Landlords, fight back. We don’t have to take this STUFF from tenants!
I have the same problem, I have a very bad landlord! I just moved in 1 month ago after, two weeks went by and my daughter started getting bites from bed bugs all over her back, arms, legs and face!
I brought this up to the landlord 15 times at least and 10 of those in person but he just plays along, tell me he is calling an exterminator but does nothing!
I have had to trow out my couch and soon all my property and to top it off, I have to move again and can’t afford it! I’m a single mom going through a divorce and my children and I are suffering! I’ve called the city and complained about bed bugs but so far nothing.
Can I sue for non compliance, pain and suffering? We cant sleep in the dark because we are afraid to turn the lights off this is mentally messing with my kids and I. I live in Louisville KY so if there are any attorneys that could help me, please, my kids are I are tired of this!
I’m having a bed bug problem but funny thing is me and my 19 month son don’t have any bites but my boyfriend is the only one with the welts and bites. i told my landlord and they came to spray but a week later they came back and now that we lost our couch and bed pretty much soon i just don’t know what to do any more we are actually losing everything we have and I’m scared to let my landlord know about them again because i cant afford to move and am afraid they might evict me. I’ve never had any problems with bed bugs until i moved into another suite this summer other people in the building are having same problem do you think it’s wrong of them to evict me even if it was not my problem in the first place?
I moved into a new apartment and two weeks later I go to the hospital and diagnosed with scabies; I ended up spending money on medications, etc. Wrong, 6 weeks I end up going to the hospital and told I had a staff infection, money medications, ect. Wrong 10 weeks, go to health clinic and I was finally diagnosed with bedbugs. Right
Landlord told me that’s why the last tenants moved out, she knew that the house was infested with bedbugs but she took my deposit with a smile and did not do a thing about the bed bugs!
We moved out, lost everything, hired a lawyer, lawsuit was going good until supreme courts opinion in Johnson v. Scandia associates inc. 717n.e.2d(ind 1999) in that case. Our supreme court held that a landlord is not liable to a tenant for personal injuries for breach of the implied warranty of habitability. This conclusion was affirmed by the Indiana court of appeals in the case of Schuman v. Kobets. 760n.e.2d682(ind ct.app 2002).
To sum it all up, our hands are tied and we can’t do anything about it! The greedy landlords win every time. I haven’t got my deposit back or any kind of reimbursement. Good luck with you and get a dollar for me!
I want to know of an attorney who will take my case the landlord knew of the bed bug problem and treated the apt. next to me without informing me of anything. I lost heirlooms, all my cloth in my home had to move all the cost associated with that I am disabled and on a low income and now I am in the negative big time and I don’t have anyone to lean on. I am so ticked off at this but cannot seem to find anyone who will help me.
Oh I am giving her heck all the time about the bed bug infestation, it is also a govt. building and I report her on everything I know and find out. I have tons of pictures and documents, was admitted to the hospital, and also have mental stress from this. I want to sue her/company for her non compliance and causing this hardship on me. It has cost me 4000.00 and I am going deeper and deeper in the hole. Someone needs to help us on this it isn’t right for the landlords to get by with non compliance.
Oh I live in Kentucky if anyone will take my case.
Hi there,
Last month i had a issue with bed bugs in my apartment, when i reported it to the building manager he already new about the problem, apparently my apartment was the 3rd one to be infested.
I suffered from numerous bites on my arms and feet, at first i didn’t know what was causing the itchy rash and tried different creams from the doctor, i lost pretty much everything i owned and reported it to the health department.
After living with these bugs eating me at night for a month without any support to help contain the problem by the landlord i had to leave everything i owned and start over in a new apartment. I did everything possible, double sided tape, taped holes in walls around plugs etc, washed everything in hot water which ruined my cloths plus containers and living out of bags, sleeping in the living room on couch with lights on scared to sleep in the dark, very stressed out, and embarresd thinking everyone would think i was dirty if they knew.
For 2 months now i go to the hospital for help to get over this. My body is scared for life, my beef about all this is my landlord refuses to give me back my security deposit and trying to charge me thousands of dollars to clean up the mess they could have avoided, slum lords.
The apartment is still infested and the tenants are steaming about it, i also lost my job of 2 years with a company because i was losing it from lack of sleep and stress, i live in a different apartment now but still have the fear of being eaten while i sleep at night, and i always check the bedroom before i go to bed just in case.
IS THIS RIGHT TO HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS? How come the health department does not do something to help the tenants???? shouldn’t the landlords be more responsible to control these situations??? I’m a bit angry about this and am still fighting to get my deposit back 3 months later!
ps landlord told me get rid of them or get out.If I had the money to move believe me I would be gone…I have never in my life felt so scared and defenseless about something…bedbug also has helped. but also they (the babies) walk across the ceiling and drop on everything. That’s how they get around because they do not fly…
believe me everything I have read is true…my landlord told me..its my prob. I must have brought them here. I have been living here for 10 months. a new neighbor moved in a month ago and now I have them..and getting eaten alive…not so much me (i smoke) but my kids, my daughter had 100 welts on her arm one morning. I am trying everything. I got rid of all my sheets curtains pictures. I have the mattress covers on my beds. I did find this stuff called ant & crawling insect killer By safer its like $8 a bottle at the hardware store. did a lot of research. safe for in the house and contains 78% DE (diatomaceous earth) and I spray alcohol up and down my walls…has cut down a lot but this is my second week…still in progress…and we all wipe down with off when going to bed…
IT IS NOT A MATTER OF BEING CLEAN OR DIRTY. Granted I am not a NEAT FREAK, but I am not a dirty person and I have had to deal with them. Another thing, BED BUGS DON’T FEED ON FOOD. They feed on PEOPLES blood. So what the hell does people having some food on tables have to do with BED BUGS. NO wonder your tenants are mad at you, if you’re blaming them.
ANYONE can pick up just ONE bed bug from somewhere, be it a bus, a plane, a dept. store, and then POOF, there is an infestation. Its not their fault. I don’t blame the fact that our apt. blg has a huge problem with bed bugs, on our landlord, at all, its not his fault. But he also doesn’t blame it on his TENANTS! And he does the RIGHT thing and sprays, like the law says he should (even though it just pisses the bed bugs off and they come back with a vengeance)
I am so sick 0of them and I cant afford to move, and it seems that even if when we move, and take every precaution, we end up having to deal with them somewhere else. Its an epidemic of epic proportions. And I wish I had a simple solution for it. But you SHOULD NOT BLAME your TENANTS. Especially when it seems like you’re ignorant as to how/why bed bugs come around in the first place!!
I have had a building for 20 years now; we have bed bugs and find that most tenants have clutter and food on tables, not very clean. I keep my basement clean, I put their garbage in big black bags, i give plenty heat and hot water and I pay every week to have the halls washed. I love my building and now I’m infested with bed bugs! Tenants are mad at me now!
Use DE – Diatomaceous Earth. It works!
We have also dealt with the same problem! The people above us was infested with bed bugs. i mean millions i have never seen anything like it. Well, the news ended up coming out there and interviewing the couple. The Landlord said it was because they where dirty and dumpster divers. So he got away with it with them.
We are not dumpster divers we are very clean, neat, do not have a dozen pets in our apt. So what excuse can he use with us? We told him about it he offered to treat our stuff with SEVEN i said to him do what!!!! seven!! you have lost your mind. So he put us in a different apt. without treating our stuff so the bed bugs went with us.
We started sleeping on the couch because my girlfriend was so scared to sleep in the bed. Well they came to the couch. I found out that bed bugs find you by your breath!!! So we started staying up all night and sleeping during the day. Unfortunately, we had to stop that because it became to much for us.
My girlfriend had to take a short term disability leave from work over this. So when she goes back to work she will most likely loose her job that she has had for many years, with great benefit’s. We have had to get rid of our couch, recliner, dressers, clothes (and I mean expensive clothes like American eagle, A & F, etc).
We have had to wash all of our clothes and we have a lot! Our water bill i bet will have gone up $150.00 dollars and our electricity i can only imagine!! We had to go buy those white zip bags that you can see through on top to put our clothes in. I bet i spent $150.00 dollars alone on just stuff to store our clothes in safely, not to mention the clothes we lost or that shrunk from the hot water and dryer!!!
Everything i feel touching me i think is a bed bug and it’s driving me crazy!! Well we went and got white sheets for the bed, plastic zip covers for our bed because we cant afford to buy a new one rite now because we have spent so much money. And we are still having to spend money every time i turn around we are having to buy something because of these bed bugs.
The sad thing is the landlord knows about these apts. I know for a fact that there are 4 apts. that are infested with them. The landlord is spraying with some kind of spray that just makes them madder. I have done a lot of research on them and you don’t spray any kind of bug spray on them they will come at you 100 times worse.
I have our bed legs in bowls with soapy water so they cant get to us by crawling up the legs, we have pulled the bed away from the wall, white bed sheets, and we wipe our self down with a washcloth before we get in bed. So far so good. The first night i was still scared to death that they could still get to us. I am having nightmares they will probably last for months. I have seen a psychiatrist over this it’s so bad.
I want us to just move but I’m afraid they will go with us to a new place so why bother!!! Are landlord is a slum lord from h#@ll. I feel he should have to pay for everything we lost, all the time we have put into this, all the emotional stress we have been under, it has caused us problems in our relationship, because of the stress.
I called orkin and they want $1,100 to come exterminate out apartment and they don’t want to because they said it wont do ant good because they will just run to the other apartments and we’ll have them again. We are at our wit’s end. I just want the landlord to pay for what we have lost, what we have had to pay out, get our stuff exterminated, and pay to relocate us and movers.
I WANT OUR RENT BACK FOR EVERY MONTH THAT WE HAVE HAD TO LIVE WITH BED BUGS!!!!! I don’t think that to much to ask. We have contacted the health dept., tenants union, etc. And Bullit County doesn’t have housing or apt. inspectors. So this man keeps getting away with this he knows what he is doing. And it has me so mad. I will not stop until i find a way to get some type of inspectors in here. He rent’s to section 8 shouldn’t they be able to come and inspect? But that wouldn’t do us any good because we pay our rent $700.00 a month to live this way.
I have even went to the police department and got a print out of how many times the cops where here last year just to show what kind of man he is, and that he doesn’t not care. Well the cops where in our apt complex over 420 times last year. Sorry, I know that doesn’t apply to the bed bugs but I’m just getting out my anger. I have read where people have gotten bed bugs from hotels and sued for millions and won. Does anyone know of anyone suing from a apt. complex and winning? I’m not out for millions, i just want us to get back what we have had to put out…..
Oh my god this is terrible. We have them in a Seniors building….once in awhile they find them in one aprt and the poor senior gets their bed tossed out and has to move to another room without any of their stuff to return several days later with a base boards removed mattress tossed. Now it seems to fine there for a bit and then it is another apt.t. Now in mine I don’t have them in my bed put have sticky papers (for mice at the dollar store) around the cable wire that comes out of the wall and catch the odd one there!!! Sooner or later no matter how careful I am I will get the, I can’t aford to move???
I am currently going through the same thing. About 3 weeks ago, I started getting eaten alive at night. I have 5 children, 2 of them being infants. This is the most stressful situation I have ever faced in my life. My apartment management is acting the same way; like this is not a big deal.
Management has promised over the last three weeks that pest control was coming. However I spent the last 3 days, completely packing my house per there instructions to prepare for the treatment, only to find out today by the pest company that they have never even scheduled anything.
There are several other units in my apartments having the same issue, and management is just ignoring the problem which is causing it to get worse. Today I contacted the Tenants counsel in my area, and sent a certified letter to the apartments. I plan on taking any and all action needed to get this taken care of.
This is not right for people and families to have to go through, when it is required by law that landlords address this issue. In the meantime while they sit around and scratch there butt doing nothing, everything that we have worked for is being infested, and our children are going through stress just like us.
I am so irritated. Sorry if I vented, but, I am really stressed about this. And even more concerned about my children!
I hope this guy that is suing his apartment complex wins the case if he has truly dealt with these bugs. I too had a problem with my apartment building they didn’t care about my family being devoured every sleepless night. They never treated the apartments, we had to pay for treatments and it only made the bloodsucking pest bite us even more they would scatter and come back since each apartment has them. We had to move and start from scratch in a completely different part of town at our expense. While many others in the apartment complex are still being victimized.
I originally wasn’t gonna sue or holler about it since we’ve been through enough already, having to move, being furnitureless for months sleeping on the floor with our infant etc… But now that we found a bug in our new they somehow traveled with us, even though we took every step carefully when moving.
I have had my new home treated at my expense and went to my local newspaper hopefully they write something about it to warn people since the bedbug infested apartment building is still advertising for people to move in. That’s serving dinner to these bugs and I think soon I will have built up enough courage from anger to sue that place, they laughed at me when I showed them all the bites and welts my daughter and I had. They tried to say we brought them there when I’ve never seen a bedbug or dealt with bedbugs in my life. And the bugs were huge which means they were full grown adult bugs they had been in our apartment before we moved in and I learned from a couple BIGNAMED pest companies that very same apartment complex had been having problems for over three years and will not go away until they comply and tent the entire building to treat each unit.
Tenting and treating is something the apartment’s managers don’t want to do, their excuse directly to me was “It is the tenants responsibility to pay for the treatment and where would everyone go for three days, its not gonna happen” what a nice guy he is its obvious he doesn’t live there and isnt dealing with the bedbugs he should have some sympathy.
As you can see I am still fed up with this I have spent so much money have lost so much time at work, and all of our furniture we had for years we have lost. I will be getting our last fumigation done within two weeks in our new home please let this be the last I have to deal with bedbugs. I’m exhausted and financially tapped.