Somerville boarding home with bed bugs not allowed to take new tenants

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Rajinder Jassil's rooming home is on West End Avenue in Somerville.Google Maps

SOMERVILLE The owner of a rooming home on West End Avenue that reportedly has had problems with bed bugs for five years was fined by the state and is barred from taking new tenants until conditions improve.

According to a report from myCentralJersey.com, residents at Rajinder Jassil's West End property have reported bed-bug infestations for five years. The report said Jassil also owns two other properties in New Brunswick that have similar problems.

Jassil, a Branchburg resident, was fined $1,000 by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which regulates rooming homes in the state, after failing a second inspection at his Somerville property, DCA communications manager Emike Omogbai told NJ Advance Media. The department also imposed an admission curtailment order on the property, prohibiting Jassil from accepting new tenants "until further notice."

In a rooming home, tenants occupy single-room living spaces but share kitchens, bathrooms and living areas. The state first inspected the two-story West End property on Dec. 5, 2014, according to Omogbai. Inspectors found bed bug activity, ceiling leaks, damaged ceiling tiles, dirty walls, trash pile-ups and dirty dishes in rooms, Omogbai said.

After the residence was re-evaluated on Feb. 20, inspectors found that Jasssil treated the property for bed bugs, but failed to provide certification proving the house was inspected after 60 days and no evidence of activity was found, Omogbai said.

The inspection also found that Jassil "failed to conduct routine housekeeping of harborage areas i.e. vacuuming, washing baseboards/walls etc.," Omogbai said.

He did, however, check new residents for possible bed bug infestation and obtain a contract with a licensed pesticide applicator to maintain routine scheduled treatments, according to Omogbai.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Jassil said he is in the process of getting the place up to standards by the time the state comes back in late March.

"We are working on it," he said. "We are working 24 hours to fix whatever we have to do. I hope everything will be okay."

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Somerville boarding home with bed bugs not allowed to take new tenants

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