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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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.