Bed bugs in a duplex
Looking into advice on how I can get my tenants to help cover the cost of getting rid of bedbugs. douglas county MN The main floor unit seems to be the only unit that has them but it sounds like my one and only option is really to have the whole house treated both the main unit and the upstairs unit as we don’t know 100% where they came from.I obviously don’t want to cover the entire cost myself any creative ways to make a pitch to my tenants? I have been paying me so much a month for so many months etc.? Thank you
Lets see, you have 2 unit and one unit has bedbugs and the other doesn't.
Reminds me of Star Wars "Yoda: Mmm. Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing. How embarrassing."
You KNOW 100% where they came from, however it is a pest issue in most States which falls on Landlord
Unfortunately in most states unless your lease specifically states otherwise Tenants are legally required to notify their landlord as soon as bed bugs are found.Tenants are required to cooperate with the landlord's extermination efforts. If the landlord does not take steps to exterminate the bugs, Tenant can contact the local health department.
The real issues is that Bedbugs can require multiple treatments before they are eradicated
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Originally posted by @Aaron Harren:
Looking into advice on how I can get my tenants to help cover the cost of getting rid of bedbugs. douglas county MN The main floor unit seems to be the only unit that has them but it sounds like my one and only option is really to have the whole house treated both the main unit and the upstairs unit as we don’t know 100% where they came from.I obviously don’t want to cover the entire cost myself any creative ways to make a pitch to my tenants? I have been paying me so much a month for so many months etc.? Thank you
Get the entire house treated and have the pest removal company write something up stating where the infestation came from (downstairs unit) then bill the downstairs tenants for the entire cost of pest control. If they do not pay for it then you've got 2 choices.
- Spend the money evicting them for not paying the bed bug treatment.
- Let it go & deduct it from their deposit when they move out. Note given that they have brought bed bugs into your property it is safe to assume that they're probably savages so it's unlikely that there won't be more damages done than their deposit will cover.
@Aaron Harren
Hi Aaron,
One of my tenants brought bed bugs when they moved into one of my apartments. I used rose pest control and they set off a gas/spray every other week for 6 weeks. The tenants were required to leave for 4 hours after each spary but they did not have to bag or trash anything. Luckily we caught it quickly and the bugs did not spread to the other units. It caused me around $500 but was a fairly painless process. Make sure you check with your local tenant landlord laws because in Chicago the landlord is required to pay.
Hope this helps.
@Richelle Smith how did they, or you guys know and decide on for sure to not do both units? My guys really seems to think both need and should be done. Also my tenants claim that maybe they have been there for like 5 months........ maybe that’s long enough to spread everywhere? Thanks