Bed Bug Nightmare

[dannixoxo]

I live in a town home in a very nice neighborhood. A bunch of college kids whose parents were paying rent moved in next door. One of them worked at habitat for humanity and was constantly bringing in furniture and a mattress from there. Their town home (next to mine) was exterminated twice for bed bugs. Management never notified me that this was going on on the other side of my wall. Two days ago I found a bed bug and notified management. They told me that the neighbors had been exterminated twice and since those people had continued to bring in furniture after the extermination their place was re-infested. These people moved out so the bugs migrated to the units on either side. Management agreed to pay for the extermination fee ($1500) but they are making me pay for the storage bins in which I have to put all of my belongings so that they can be treated separately from the house, the costs of laundering every single cloth item in my home, the electric bill that is about to sky rocket from the extermination process, all the extra bags and cotainers I'll need to de-contaminate all of my clothes. Not to mention the fact that my entire wardrobe will shrink because everything has to be washed and dryed on high heat. They also expect me to leave all of my belongings outside of my town home for an eight hour period during the treatment process in which any of my belongings could be stolen. Also, I AM A SINGLE MOM OF A SIX YEAR OLD AND WE ARE BEING FORCED TO STAY IN THIS INFESTED TOWN HOMEfor five days until the exterminators can come. I can't afford to stay in a hotel and management won't help me pay for any of this! My parents are looking in to buying a pod for my belongings- but they should not have to pay for this! They say they can't pin the expenses on the old neighbors because they moved out over 30 days ago, but I think management should have to help with some of these expenses considering they neglected to inform me of any of this months ago and it all could have been prevented in the first place!!! Is there anything I can do to get some help paying for all of this? Can I break my lease because of this- I don't even want to live here any more if management can't help me out when they already admitted they were at fault.

 

[army judge]

You can break your lease, but it will cost you.

You can 't make anyone, do anything.

You can sue?

Will you win, maybe.



If you sue, expect to spend $3,000 to $5,000 to retain an attorney.

If the landlord is scared into settling, that could take six to eight weeks, maybe.

If you go to trial and prevail, expect that to take ten to twelve weeks. My estimates aren't guarantees, just educated guesses.

You could sue in small claims court. That'll take the same six to eight weeks, too. Just a guess, mind you.

If you prevail, then you must collect your judgment.

Bottom line, I'd remain calm and do my best to get through this. The landlord is offering to help with the biggest expense. Frankly, your landlord has no legal obligation to do anything. The culprits were allegedly the tenants who've left!!!

In fact, no one can prove who started the infestation. The former tenants are likely suspects, but proving it will be impossible. Besides, if you did prove the students crested this mess, you legally absolve the landlord.

You've done about as well as you can. All you can do now us bite the bullet and move on. Yeah but, there is no yeah but in this case.

Well, there is a yeah but, except it won't get you anywhere. Accept the help your landlord has offered. Do your part in fixing somebody's mess. We do it everyday.