Can I Sue For Bed Bugs In My Apartment in Maryland ? Yes

Watch the Video Below: Whitney, LLP’s lawyers answers the question: Can I Sue for Bed Bugs In My Apartment ? Yes you can, and our lawyers for bed bugs in apartments sue landlords for tenants in bed bug infestation across Maryland. Our lawyers help apartment tenants, renters, hotel, vacation rental and AirBnB guests in bed bug bite and infestation claims across Maryland. In 2021, Baltimore ranked second on Orkin’s list of the most bed bug infested cities. Many tenants experience bed bug infestations and need help dealing with their landlords.

Landlords Are Often Responsible for Bed Bug Infestations

Tenants who are moved into apartments with a pre-existing infestation can sue. These cases arise when the landlord fails to exterminate a bed bug infestation between tenants. Or, they allow an adjacent infested unit to spread into a new unit that a new tenant is moving into.

Tenants who have lived in an apartment have a bed bug infestation develop and spread from an adjacent unit, have legal rights and can sue. When bed bugs are reported in an apartment, the landlord has the responsibility to not only inspect and treat that unit, they also have to inspect and treat the adjacent units as well. However, many landlords are negligent and do not inspect or treat the units next to an adjacent unit.

Many Maryland Counties address bed bugs individually, such as Anne Arundel County’s Department of Health and the Wicomico County Department of Health. However, the state-level Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has also created and published their “Bed Bugs Fact Sheet“.

Our Lawyers for Tenants Sue Negligent Landlords for Bed Bugs

Our attorneys for bed bugs in apartments have recovered over $13,000,000 for our Clients in bed bug cases as compensation for bites, scarring, emotional distress and property damage. A Baltimore landlord paid our client $125,000 – (Read More) after failing to properly treat an infestation in her apartment for an extended period of time. The Baltimore Sun has also written on the subject of “What to do if you have bed bugs.”

Click here to review our prior bed bug settlements and verdicts;
Click here to read what some of our clients have said about us; and
Apartment tenants who are looking for information on bed bug infestations in apartments often have other questions such as: How Much Is A Bed Bug Case Worth?, My Apartment Has Bed Bugs — What Are My Rights? Are Landlords Responsible For Bed Bugs?, and Lawyers For Bed Bugs In Apartments. Click here to read our blogs and watch our videos covering those questions, and discussing some of our past bed bug cases.

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 more videos.

Can I Sue For Bed Bugs In My Apartment in Maryland? Yes.

Transcript below, with edits for this blog:

Hi, this is Dan Whitney with the Whitney Law Firm in Towson, Maryland. Today, we’re going to be talking about the question of, can I sue for bed bugs in my apartment? The answer is yes. Yes, of course you can sue for bed bugs in your apartment. Our bed bug lawyers sue landlords for apartment infestations very often here in Maryland, including in Baltimore City (both Section 8 and regular rental properties), Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, Howard County, Montgomery County, Prince Georges County and other counties.

So I’ve been an attorney for about 10 years and handled many, many bed bug lawsuits primarily here in Maryland. A lot of those are against apartments and negligent landlords that ignore bed bug infestations.

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Our Client Who Was Bitten After Being Rented An Infested Apartment Bed Bug Infested

Who Is Responsible for a Bed Bug Infested Apartment?

In a new apartment that has bed bugs, in Maryland, landlords are responsible for treating the infestation. If the infestation spreads to a unit after the tenant has lived there already, it still is often the landlords responsibility.

Many tenants have issues when they move into an apartment and they either find that the apartment was infested before they moved in, in which case they’re probably going to find bed bugs crawling on the walls or find themselves or their family members being bitten usually within a couple of weeks after moving in.

Or you may end up wanting to sue an apartment for bed bugs due to, if you’ve been there a while, say six months or a year so everything’s fine initially, but then the infestation seems to creep into your apartment and you start finding the bugs and the bites and being itchy and all those sorts of things.

That usually happens when one of the adjacent units has an infestation and it is either not reported to the landlord, or if it’s reported to the landlord, they do not treat it effectively, thereby allowing it to spread to other adjacent units. So in a situation like that, a landlord would be negligent if the bed bug infestation was reported and not treated properly and allowed the spread.

Landlords That Treat for Bed Bugs Must Treat Promptly

Of course, no matter how the bed bug infestation got there, usually once a tenant reports it, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to treat and they have to do that promptly and properly. They can’t drag it out for months on end and leave the tenant to suffer in misery. If a unit is infested right when a tenant moves in, the tenant should immediately put their landlord on notice and the landlord needs to take steps to promptly treat that infestation as fast as possible to minimize the suffering to the new tenant and that person’s family.

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

Our Attorneys Sue Negligent Landlords for Bed Bugs

If you just moved into a bed bug infested apartment, or bed bugs have spread to your apartment and the landlord is not treating the infestation, you may very well be entitled to compensation for what you’ve had to go through due to the landlord’s negligence. If so and it’s in Maryland, please give us a call and we may be able to help.