Last month, an article appeared in a Columbus, Ohio newspaper regarding landlords, tenants and bed bugs. Although bed bugs are not limited to a particular state or city, in Ohio bed bugs are a huge and exploding problem.
Some landlords in Ohio are trying to find ways to make sure their tenants do not bring in bed bugs during the time they are living there and that the tenants do not ignore a bed bug sighting. These landlords are putting into their lease agreements wording that requires the tenant to be responsible for several things, things that some tenants find they are not willing to agree too.
A story last month in the Columbus Dispatch outlined an addendum in a lease that required the tenants to certify that their unit contained no bedbugs. It was not clear what this 'certification' would be but likely it would be something like having scent detection dogs or a pest control company come in and perform an inspection of the apartment or home being leased. It further stipulated that the tenants would have to notify the landlord if bedbugs appear. At that point, they also would have to cooperate with extermination efforts and cover the entire cost, including any expenses associated with the elimination of bugs that might have spread to adjacent units. On top of all that, if bedbugs appeared, the lease would terminate immediately.
Some of this does not really seem fair, for example bed bugs can travel from one unit to another and one person's discovery of bed bugs in their unit could truly be due to no fault of their own. It could be hard to prove which unit the bed bugs originally came from.
Right or wrong, these types of things have become increasingly common in rental agreements in central Ohio, according to Dianna Parker, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of Columbus. Renters presented with a pest-control addendum seem to have three options: Sign the agreement as is, negotiate changes in it, or move.
In other areas, we are hearing about laws being enacted that require landlords make sure the property is clear of bed bugs before new tenants move in. Legislative bodies in Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have considered bed bug legislation in 2010-11. Arizona has recently passed a new law relating to bed bugs which does the following:
- Requires tenants to notify landlords in writing or electronically of the presence of bed bugs.
- Prohibits tenants from moving items into the building if they are known to be infested with bed bugs.
- Requires landlords to provide bed bug educational materials to existing and new tenants.
- Prohibits landlords from renting units known to have current bed bug infestations.
In our fine state of Hawaii bed bugs have been added to the state's real estate disclosure form. Included in the November 2010 Hawaii Association of Realtor Seller’s Real Property Disclosure Statement is a question about bed bugs. The question is: Has there been any sign of, or are you aware of any pest problems (e.g., roaches, fleas, bedbugs, mites, ticks, ants, rats, etc.)?
Once again, in regards to Ohio, we see in Orkin's rankings for the worst bed bug cities in the United States (based on its number of calls for service), the Cincinnati metropolitan area has ranked first the last two years. Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland have also ranked in the top 15 each of the last two years.
We are likely to see much more of this kind of thing in the future as the bed bug problem continues to grow everywhere. The increase of bed bugs is attributed to high traffic from planes, buses and other forms of transportation. Cultural diversity in a region can also be a factor. There may be people coming from other parts of the world where bed bugs are more common who may not be so quick to report it or even know that it should be reported. Hawaii certainly has all of these factors and risks.
Call KILOHANA K9s if you think you might have seen a bed bug in your home. We can provide certificates of inspection for landlord, tenants, real estate agents and others!
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