New York – A bill passed by both houses of the state Legislature on Thursday requires New York City landlords to tell prospective tenants about a building’s recent bedbug history.
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Under the measure, which will become law once it is signed by Gov. David A. Paterson, landlords must inform incoming tenants whether the apartment under consideration or another in the same building had been infested within the previous year.
“Bedbugs are bipartisan when it comes to snacking on blood,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal of the Upper West Side. “So it’s a bill that appeals to everybody regardless of political affiliation.”
Under the measure, the landlords would have to include disclosure forms when they hand over vacancy leases, in a process to be overseen by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
The bill passed despite opposition from some Republicans who, Ms. Rosenthal said, argued that the disclosure would stigmatize buildings and drive property values down.
Complaints about bedbugs have soared in New York City in recent years. According to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, nearly 11,000 calls about bedbugs were made to the city’s 311 help line, compared with 537 in fiscal year 2004. The number of confirmed infestations has also risen sharply, to 4,084 last year from 82 six years ago.
Ms. Rosenthal said she wrote the bill after being flooded with complaints from constituents and friends who had been besieged by bedbugs. She said she hoped to introduce a similar disclosure bill next year that would apply to the entire state.
She has also introduced a bill that would give bedbug victims a 15 percent tax credit, for up to $750, to compensate for replacing furniture infested by bedbugs, though said she does not anticipate that bill passing until the state attains economic health.
i wish this law had been passed sooner! i just found them in my apartment this week and have spent hundreds of dollars in cleaning and lost furniture, shoes, etc. i still cant sleep at night.
someone wanted to rent an apartment in the building i live in. they asked the current tenant if she had any bugs and she said no! so this person called me to verify it that was the truth…sadly it wasnt! why would people lie? i went through 5 months of gehenim because the tenant below me failed to notify the management office. by the time i was done with the treatments i got it again because they started treating their apartment! it was a nightmare beyond words. for 5 months we slept on the floor on blankets and lived out of garbage bags from pesach till succos. no reason to live in denial it only hurts innocent people and leaves them scarred forever. please be honest and save others from pain and money damage!
This will be a disaster. Landlords will now deny that there are bedbugs in an apartment, whereas in the past they would have helped remedy, because they will be afraid of the impact on future rentability / pricing. This will hurt tenants much more than it will help.
You gotta love our government! First they take away the only tool to fight insects like bedbugs, then they force extermination! People, if you really want to fight the bedbug epidemic, please petition your congressperson to allow the use of DDT in fighting this vermin.
Check to see whether there are birds’ nests by the windows on the building walls.
In my experience, bedbugs only live in old buildings, and I suspect it’s spread from the nesting birds.
I’ve dealt with them as well, and believe me, bed bugs can and do infest ANY sort of dwelling or office or business. What we really need is for the government to legalize the use of DDT for the limited purpose of fighting bedbugs. The quantity necessary would not be even a ten thousandth of the agricultural amounts that years back damaged the environment, so we can have our birds and bedbug-free dwellings. But what is necessary is for the government to again look at this issue in scientific and not emotional terms. Call/write your congressman and demand that they hold hearings into this.
FYI bedbugs usually do not travel from 1 apt to the next
this should be a state law not just for NYC