I confess, bedbugs give me the heebie-jeebies. When folks come in, talking about how they have an infestation, I feel like I need to do a superstitious cleansing, a dance, a prayer, to make sure they don't end up hanging out around here. (And so far they haven't. Knock on wood. Feel free to come visit.)
When 2013 Wisconsin Act 76 was passed, it had some language in the law to do with repairs, which has led many people to confusion, especially on the subject of bedbugs. Today, I'm hoping to explain what bedbugs are, best practices in elimination, and whose responsibility it is to take that step.
What are bedbugs?
Bed bugs are small brown insects that look a little like wood ticks and are about the size of an apple seed. Theytypically spend the day in small cracks and crevices in the bedroomoften in the bed itself. At night they biteand feed on the blood of the person sleeping in the bed, then return to their hiding place.Bed bugs are notknown to transmit any disease, but of course they can still make someone's life miserable.
Bed bugs live for ten or eleven months under normal conditions. An adult female can lay several eggs a dayand hundreds over her lifetime. The eggs are tiny and hard to detect. Immature bed bugs have the same basicshape as the adults but are smaller and lighter in color. A bed bug molts (sheds its skin) five times beforebecoming an adult capable of reproducing. It has to have at least one meal of fresh blood before each molt.Under ideal conditions a bed bug can go from hatchling to adult in as little as a month.
The shape of the bug changes after it has fed. Before feeding, it's quite flat (in order to hide in cracks) androundish. After feeding, the bug is longer, no longer flat, and is more of a purplish color. Under the rightconditions adults can survive up to one year without feeding, which is one reason it can be so hard to get bedbugs out of a home.
Why are bedbugs so hard to get rid of?
Best Practices for Bedbug Removal:
Wisconsin Laws: Who Pays?
Wisconsin law is pretty clear that the responsibility for repairs is on the landlord, and bedbugs are considered a repair issue. If the tenant caused it, though their "acts or inaction," then the tenant can be made to pay for the cost of getting rid of the infestation, but the landlord really would need to show that the tenant caused it. Here are the laws that make us think this:
If the premises are damaged, including by an infestation of insects or other pests, due to the acts or inaction of the tenant, the landlord may elect to allow the tenant to remediate or repair the damage and restore the appearance of the premises by redecorating. However, the landlord may elect to undertake the remediation, repair, or redecoration, and in such case the tenant must reimburse the landlord for the reasonable cost thereof.
This law seems to say that a tenant can be held responsible for the cost of pest infestations, but it's also pretty clear that that responsibility is only when the pests are "due to" something the tenant did or failed to do. When we're talking bedbugs, it doesn't seem like very much could be pointed to the "acts or inaction" of the tenant. How can a landlord prove where bedbugs came from? It might be possible, maybe if the tenant has lived in a single family home for over a year, where neither the landlord nor the landlord's employees entered during that time. It might also be possible to hold then tenant responsible when they didn't cooperate with pest removal services, but beyond that, it's a stretch.
Therefore, this law seems pretty clear that if there was a problem that was caused by someone who was not the tenant or the tenant's guest, then it would not be the tenant's responsibility to pay for that property damage. If, for instance, bedbugs were brought in on the shoes of a maintenance person, or through the ducts from a neighbors unit, it wouldn't be the tenant who ends up on the hook for those costs.
ATCP 134 language is now consistent with Wis. Stat. 704.
Resources:
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Link:
Bedbugs - Tenant Resource Center
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