Bed bugs + breaking lease... HELP??? ?

Question

Hi my husband and I moved into an apartment complex in may and since then our furniture has become riddled with bed bugs, i'm utterly disgusted, they've sent several extermination companies out to attemp to rid the problem w/ minimal success. I am ready to break my lease and move of course I will need to purchase an entire house worth of furniture again as if I take my current (1.5yr old) furniture with me its likely I will transport the ******* with me. What recourse if any do I have for recouping the cost of my furniture as I never had a bug until I moved here. I live in Ohio if this helps.

Answer 1

Get all the documents you can in order to prove the bugs were in the apartment prior to you moving in then contact the leasing company and explain the problem if they do not reimburse you take them to small claims court  

Answer 2

Do not assume that the apartment complex is the source of your bedbugs, or that they are responsible for them.  Bedbugs cam enter premises in many ways, and travel to other infested places is but one of those methods.  You may need to seal and fumigate your entire unit, leave for perhaps an overnight stay elsewhere.

Consider yourself fortunate that your apartment complex is helpingyou with this.  Bedbugs generally are not THEIR problem.

Answer 3

You  need to go online and read about bedbugs. They have to have a source to prey on and it is not pretty. They have to have people in order to thrive.....

Answer 4

WOW, we are landlords in Pennsylvania, and we are going through a bedbug problem in some of our units.  We never had one complaint of these darn pests in the 10 years that we have been landlords, now all of a sudden, 3 of our units have them.  And they are almost impossible to get rid of. You are right about your furniture, don't take it with you.  But, they also stick on clothes and shoes, boxes, pretty much everywhere.  So if you don't take them with you on furniture, you will probably take them with you some other way.  Our exterminator said it is the worst problem of bed bug infestation in the City that he has seen in the 15 years that he has been doing it.  Tons of landlords and home owners are calling him with complaints.  The problem is, you have to prove that you didn't bring them in the apartment.  Does anyone else in the building have the same problem?  They spread through whole buildings.  If you can't prove that you DIDN"T bring them in to the apartment, and that the condition was pre-existing and the landlord didn't tell you about it, you would probably be able to move out without penalty, and sue him for furniture replacement.  If you have the previous tenants name, maybe by a few pieces of mail still delivered to your address, contact them and find out if the problem existed with them also, if it did, then you have a case.  I feel for you, we have exterminated one of our apartment units 5 times, and still can't get rid of them, and it has now spread to the apartment upstairs.  But, the tenant that has them, traveled to Europe and brought them back with him.

Answer 5

most of the time, civil cases like this come down to who presents there case the best. collect as moch proof now before you leave of the bug problem. get a list going of eveything about the situation, date first noticed problem, reported, landlords response , those kinda things and be ready to prove you didn't have them before you moved in. These things could be used in court to help your case or to present to your landlord in one last attempt to corect the problem. Maybe you can scare them into getting serious about it this time. Breaking your lease will leave you still  owing the balance of the lease and the bug problem will be looked at as a side case.  WARNING: most landlords win these kind of cases.  good luck