Q: I live in a small co-op in Manhattan. Last summer my apartment had a bed bug infestation which I treated by calling an exterminator. The process required multiple visits and cost several thousand dollars. I never billed the co-op, partly out of embarrassment, although I could have. I later found out that my upstairs neighbor also had bed bugs and treated them herself. Now, a year later, the board is updating its condominium lease so that bed bug treatment is entirely the tenants’ responsibility. Can it? Do state laws apply to a cooperative’s response to insect infestations?
A: Renters in New York City, including co-op shareholders, have the right to live in apartments free of bed bugs. As a landlord, your coop board has a legal obligation to eradicate bed bug infestations and prevent them from recurring, although the rules don’t say who has to pay for treatment. The city is giving landlords 30 days to resolve the issue. The cooperative is also required to file an annual report with the city and provide residents with a written notice of the building’s bed bug history.
There’s a practical reason for this: bed bugs like to roam and often spread into neighboring homes, which could explain why you and your neighbor had an infestation at around the same time.
“The cooperative is in the best position to deal with a building-wide infestation,” said Lisa A. Smith, real estate attorney and partner in the Manhattan office of the law firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell. The Board may call a qualified professional to treat the affected unit and inspect adjacent units. “The neighbors aren’t going to do this to each other,” Ms. Smith said.
Treating the infestation is one thing. Paying for it is another: the board could force this bill on the shareholders. Most cooperatives and landlords bear the cost of destruction, while tenants bear the costs associated with preparing their homes for destruction and containing the infestation. “The real cost is the preparation,” Ms Smith said. For example, renters often replace mattresses and sofas, and clean and launder all their clothes and linens.
Look at the proposed lease change and see what it says. Under city and state housing rules, the board cannot shirk responsibility for the destruction. It can pass the cost of destruction on to shareholders, but you can push back; These costs are not extraordinary for a building, but they can be large enough to prevent a single shareholder from reporting an infestation.
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