Will Bedbug Disclosure Law Lead to Discounted Rentals?

A new law has gone into effect requiring landlords to disclose to prospective tenants any history of bedbug infestation in the apartment building and individual unit within the past year. The law has some people in the real estate industry a tad concerned that the stigma of bed bugs will leave them stuck with empty units, but at least nobody's resorting to hysterical hyperbole. "This is like AIDS in the beginning," says Gus Waite, vice president of rentals at The Real Estate Group of New York. "They just skeeve people out totally." (Somewhere in New York, an aspiring playwright is hard at work on Bedbugs in America: Millennium Recedes)

Speaking to Brick Underground, Waite describes the new law as a "scarlet letter" and wonders "what are the landlords going to do?" now that they have to tell tenants their building is cursed with the infamously resilient blood-sucking parasites. (Speaking of AIDS, even that doesn't kill the bastards.) What landlords are going to do, Waite suspects, is offer apartments at discounted rates. How low would your rent have to be to move into a building that has had bedbugs, which can sometimes live for over a year between feedings? Looking at it from another angle, how much extra are you willing to pay to score a fancy, bedbug-free domicile?

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By John Del Signore in News on September 17, 2010 9:44 AM

Comments [rss]

John L

I don't think this law addresses the problem.

It's better than nothing but what we need is a law giving the landlords a clear plan of action mandated by law of how they are to treat bed bug infestations on their properties. How they are exterminate then provide timely inspections afterward to make sure the problem has been eradicated.

I think this scarlet letter will be just as stigmatizing to new tenants as it will be to the landlord. Let's say an apartment has been properly fumigated and the bed bug infestation is gone and a new tenant, aware of there was a infestation but its now been solved, moves in and people decide to alienate this person because they live in an apartment that was once infested. I hope I'm explaining this clearly. Point is that the problem no longer exists and the landlord has rented his apartment so it doesn't matter to him/her any longer yet this new tenant now has to live with this stigma.

Plus once the apartment has been listed as infested but the tenant has signed a two year lease, what's the landlord's incentive to get rid of the problem in a timely manner?

Also if a tenant spends a year in this "bed bug listed" apartment, even though the problem never existed while they lived there, and tries to move will another landlord want to rent to them

I would much rather see a clear protocol that landlords must follow once a complaint has been made. Requiring extermination and timely inspections for a period of say one year.

I don't think this "shame game" truly addresses the problem.

Bed bug infestations need to be treated like other violations, such as no heat. You complain to the landlord and if they don't remedy the situation you take it to housing and they handle it from there.

TK

Are landlords required to inquire with their tenants? Unless an exterminator is brought in, how would the landlord acquire knowledge of tenants bedbugs?

As an aside, AIDS doesnt kill humans either.

1stephanie

I can't see any landlord here actually doing this.

TheTruthYouSeek

With the absurdly high rents that a lot of landlords want, the "discount" shouldn't hurt them much. I wouldn't worry about it. To those landlords who charge a fair price, you're rad!