Bed bugs in rental apartments: does the landlord or tenant pay …

(You can read the full text of SB1306 here.)

Heres an article from Bedbugger.com raising questions about the Arizona law. It also includes video from a local Fox station on new law.

What is not entirely clear to us from that text is how these provisions affect who pays for bed bug treatment. We recommend contacting a local tenants organization for advice (one AZ tenant advocate is interviewed in the video embedded in the article previously mentioned), or consulting a lawyer or legal aid service, if youre not sure about your rights.

Baltimore, MD

The law appears to be that landlords are responsible for eliminating pests only if they occur in more than one unit. Peoples-law.org says:

Rat proofing and pest extermination

Where infestation occurs in the shared or public areas or in 2 or more dwelling units in a building, the owner is responsible for extermination of rats, insects, or other pests.

All dwellings and dwelling units must be rat-proofed and kept in a rat-proof condition by the owner. Rat proofing includes but is not limited to: 1) using rat impervious material to block all passages by which rats could enter from outside; and 2) paving basements, cellars, and other areas in contact with the earth; eliminating rat breeding places by keeping areas clean; removing rats nests, etc.

A landlord with any sense would pay to have bed bugs removed from one unit, rather than waiting until they spread to multiple units. And I would, if I were a tenant in Baltimore with bed bugs, try and negotiate politely with the landlord on that basis.

See the source of the Baltimore information cited above here.

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Bed bugs in rental apartments: does the landlord or tenant pay ...