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You might have read in the papers that my office has a reputation
for litigating against landlords regarding severe apartment conditions,
in particular -- bedbugs.
Our office litigated the landmark New York case in setting
the amount of rent abatement for bedbug infestation. Click
here for Judge Bedford's decision on the case.
Before last year, bedbugs had not been seen in New York
for decades. Now tenants, landlords and exterminators have to re-aquaint
themselves with this tenacious, annoying, armor-plated bug.
Here are some facts:
Bedbugs are exoskeletal insects about the size of
an apple seed that feed on blood, similar to fleas and tics. Like tics,
they attach themselves to the host and take about 3 to 5 minutes to feed.
Like fleas, they are extremely hard to kill.
Bedbugs do not just reside in beds. They generally
can burrow into anything made out of wood, plaster or brick. Therefore,
getting rid of an infested bed may be a good step, but it is not the only
one.
Bedbugs are becoming prevalent for two reasons: international
travel, and the advances made in extermination. Exterminators generally
use poisons that are targetted to particular insects, so as to minimize
the threat of bug poison to humans. Of course, roach spray and most other
bug sprays have no effect on bedbugs.
Bedbugs can be destroyed by (1) getting rid of the
wooden bedframe, (2) caulking and sealing all cracks in floors, walls
and furniture, and (3) using a qualified exterminated equipped with a
poison that specifically targets bedbugs.
Landlords who fail to take the necessary steps to eradicate
bedbugs from an apartment can expect that the bedbugs will move throughout
the building, causing massive breach of warranty of habitability, exposing
the landlord to rent abatement, damages and a highly unpopular building.
Often hotels move guests into rooms which are recently vacated
by guests complaining of bedbug bites. Hotels which have willfully subjected
guests to the torture of a sleepess night in a bedbug-infested room are
often held liable for tens of thousands of dollars in punitive damages.
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