NYC Tenant Rights Black Mold: Sue Landlord

There is nothing as annoying and discouraging to realize you have bed bugs in your apartment. You wake up in the morning with little red bites usually on your back, arms or legs. You realize you didn’t sleep so well and now you might even have bed bugs. This could actually be a very frightening experience to go through but there is help available. So what should you do and what do you need to look for? There is help available and your do not need to just live with the bed bugs.

First, one of the misconceptions is that they only live in dirty, filthy places but you are clean and you worry that you haven’t cleaned good enough. Because they are so small they can and often do move from one apartment to another apartment. If there is a small crack or crevice, they can travel through it. The strange thing is they are found in the all kinds of housing from run down apartments to very elegant apartments or condominiums or homes.

Second, you need to find evidence that you have bed bugs by inspecting your bedding, little dark trails along the seam of your mattress, under your box springs or on the back of your headboards, in cracks or crevices in your nightstands or alarm clocks. They go into hiding during the day and then they become more active at night when you are sleeping. This is because they are drawn to the warmth of your body. They usually eat every 7 to 10 days but they have been known to survive for a year without eating. The good thing is they are not known to transmit disease.

So what are you looking for? The most common bedbug is approximately .25 in long when it is mature. They are usually an oval, flat, and wingless with a reddish brown color insect. Females can live as long as a year in colder temperatures and in temperate climates may live for several months. Males don’t seem to live as long but the population of the bugs seems to be pretty evenly divided between the two sexes. If not taken care of they will populate quickly and you could have a major infestation that will be even harder to take care of.

They can hide in wood crevices of your doors, furniture and even in papers that are left laying around. So because they can hide in all kinds of places you really should check out all your furniture, bedding and clothing.


Third, if you suspect you have bedbugs, it is your responsibility to contact your landlord to work out what can be done. You can and wash all washable fabrics in your washing machine on the hot cycle with 140 degree water. Your other clothes and linens can be dry-cleaned. The problem is that it order to find where they are hiding a professional exterminator will need to be brought in. It is the responsibility of your landlord to have this taken care of because of the warranty of habitability, which gives you the right to a livable, safe and sanitary apartment. They are responsible to rid an apartment of an insect infestation.

Normally bedbugs are classified as Class B violation, which allows your landlord 30 days to correct the problem.

Fourth, if your landlord is not responding to your request, you have a couple of options that you can proceed with.

You can contact the Department of Housing Preservation and Development by calling 311.

Or you can contact the Rental Protection Agency to file a complaint where they will work as mediator between you and your landlord to help resolve this problem.

The good news is that bedbugs can be gotten rid of especially if you are looking for them before they become a big problem. You should check your mattresses, box springs and keep the areas in your home clean without stacks of clutter to help prevent the spread of bedbugs. Make sure you never bring furniture from the streets into your home as they may be infested. Do the best you can and seek the option that will work the best for you but make sure your landlord is aware of your problem so that you are not at fault for not getting the infestation taken care of.