Arizona tenants, landlords dealing with bed bugs

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Bedbugs can infest clothes, linens, toys and furniture. Their bites can cause painful rashes, swelling and itching. When Arizona apartment dwellers find themselves living through an infestation, they can discover they are at the mercy of their landlords.

The pests are a problem at apartments and hotels across the country. Complaints about bedbugs in the Valley litter the Maricopa County Environmental Services website and consumer-protection sites established to warn people about infestations. Tenants often are dismayed to discover that Arizona law holds them responsible to prove the problem isnt their fault.

Renters can face accusations that they brought the bedbugs with them. They also must comply with legally binding rental addendums that require notifying landlords about bedbugs within seven days of moving in to a property. They also are required to give landlords an opportunity to fix the problem.

Those who break leases and move out often forfeit rent payments and have security deposits withheld. Those who stay must turn over the apartments to pest-control specialists and submit to rigorous mediation processes akin to partial quarantines.

Stay or go, many people are forced to abandon furniture, clothes and bedding, costing them thousands of dollars.

The burden of proof is on the tenant. ... It is a problem we have seen. It is a problem we will continue to see, said Stanley Silas, senior staff attorney at Community Legal Services Inc.

The flat, red-brown insects are parasites that feed on blood. They are nocturnal and about the same size as a fly, although they are wingless. They live in small cracks in walls, furniture and mattress seams and are often hard to find. More often, people find traces of the bugs in clumps of feces or bits of shed skin.

Bedbugs are transient; they can move from one location to another on furniture and clothes. Bedbug bites can leave rows of raised lumps, usually on limbs and the face.

Bedbugs cross all social and economic statuses. Bedbugs dont care about your income, Silas said.

Former tenants at two metro Phoenix apartment complexes, the Moorings at Mesa Cove, in Mesa, and Biltmore on the Lake, in Phoenix, say they reported bedbug problems within days of moving in and that apartment managers were initially uncooperative or refused to return deposits after they moved out.

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Arizona tenants, landlords dealing with bed bugs

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