$25,000 Bed Bug Apartment Infestation Settlement

A young woman settled her bed bug bite claim for $25,000 after spending a week in her new bed bug infested apartment in Columbia, Maryland.  Maryland law required apartments to be free of infestation at the beginning of a lease.  However, dishonest landlords place new tenants in infested apartments, despite knowing that the tenants will suffer bed bug bites and be in misery.

Whitney, LLP’s lawyers for bed bug claims represent tenants across Maryland in infested apartment claims.

If you were moved into a bed bug infested apartment, Whitney, LLP may be able to help you recover compensation. 

• Click here to read about some of Whitney, LLP’s prior bed bug settlements and verdicts;
• Click here to read more of Whitney, LLP’s blogs about bed bug legal issues.

What Is Your Case Worth? We offer Legal Consultations and our Clients in bed bug cases pay no out of pocket fees or expenses.

Call us at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.  Here is our YouTube Channel for our videos on bed bug settlements and legal rights.

Bed Bug on the wall in the infested apartment. Bed bugs crawling on the wall are a sign of a severe infestation.

Bed Bugs in a New Apartment

A young woman in Columbia, Maryland was placed in an apartment by a landlord who did not inform her that it was infested with bed bugs.  The tenant, who had been excited about moving into a new home in the complex, began to experience itchy and painful bite marks after the second night she slept in the apartment.   Whitney LLP’s attorneys took her case, and filed suit against the landlord.

The lawsuit process revealed that the landlord, who knew of the pain and misery that bed bugs inflict on people’s lives, failed to have the apartment inspected for bed bugs by a pest control professional or trained employee before placing the young tenant in the apartment.  The landlord was apparently willing to risk the woman’s safety and health on the hope that she would not have a visible skin reaction to bed bug bites.

The landlord’s callous cost-saving gamble resulted in the tenant being bitten by bed bugs in the apartment more than 30 times on her face, arms, hands, and body, in the few nights she slept in the apartment.  The red swollen bites were ugly, embarrassing, and caused her to feel self-conscious around others and at work. After finding lived bed bugs in the apartment, the tenant became emotionally distressed, lost sleep, and was sad and frustrated to know that she had been repeatedly crawled on and fed upon by bed bugs, and that she had been placed into bed bug infested apartment.

Landlord Lied About the Bed Bug Infestation

When she confronted the landlord and apartment complex staff about the bed bug infestation, and showed them a bed bug she had captured, the young woman was given the run-around.  They refused to answer her basic questions about the infestation, what the landlord knew about bed bugs when they offered her the unit for lease, and what was being done to immediately respond to her upended home life.

With the complex refusing to provide information, the young woman showed a live bed bug in the apartment to an independent pest control professional, who told her that it was an “adult female, able to reproduce and lay eggs.”  She knew she could not continue to live in the unhealthy and unsecure setting, and was forced to scramble to find a new home, days after having spent the time, energy, and expense of moving in.

Daniel W. Whitney, Sr. and Daniel W. Whitney, Jr. of Whitney, LLP

$25,000 Bed Bug Settlement by Whitney, LLP

Whitney LLP’s lawyers forced the landlord’s pest control contractor to testify as part of the lawsuit.  That testimony showed that the contractor’s communications with the landlord, and its record keeping of its bed bug inspections and treatments were not performed as Maryland regulations required.

When bed bug treatments are performed negligently, bed bugs continue to live and bite tenants in apartment.  Bed bugs will also continue to spread into new apartments when treatments are not properly performed.  Landlords often hire the cheapest pest control companies to perform bed bug treatments in a short-sighted attempt to save money at the expense of their client’s physical and mental health.

Of course, prior results are not a guarantee of future results, and all cases are different.

Call us at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.