Finding Bed Bugs in a New Apartment – Who is Responsible?

Watch the Video Below – Finding bed bugs in a new apartment happens to many Maryland tenants. Being moved into an infested and finding bed bugs is one of the worst things that can happen to a new tenant. Landlords often lie to tenants about an apartment’s history of bed big infestation to avoid being held responsible for treatment and paying compensation to injured tenants. Landlords also often do not treat for bed bugs, and ignore tenant complaints of bed bugs.

Read about a recent $90,000 Baltimore Bed Bug Settlement by Whitney, LLP’s Baltimore Bed Bug Lawyers.

If you were moved into a bed bug infested apartment, or your landlord ignores your complaints or their treatments do not work, Whitney, LLP’s lawyers for bed bugs may be able to help

Compensation for bed bug bites can be recovered for:

bites,
itching,
scarring and disfigurement,
emotional distress,
medical bills and
property damage.

Whitney, LLP’s attorneys for bed bugs specialize in Maryland bed bug cases and have recovered over $13,000,000 for our clients in bed bug claims cases, verdicts and settlements. Consultations are always free.

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 videos on bed bug infestations.

Finding Bed Bugs in a New Apartment – Who is Responsible?

Edited Transcript Below:

Hi, this is Dan Whitney with the Whitney Law Firm here in Towson, Maryland. Today, we’re going to talk about finding bed bugs in a new apartment. It’s a disgusting thing, but of course it happens. You move into a new apartment and you start to find itchy red bites across your body or your family’s body. And you might start seeing these little tiny brown reddish bugs crawling around. That means you’ve been moved into a bedbug infested apartment. It happens very often, and often the landlord is responsible for the bed bug infestation and can be held accountable.

Tell the Landlord You Found Bed Bugs and are Being Bitten

So if you’ve been moved into an apartment and you find bed bugs, the first thing you got to do is you got to put your new landlord on notice, and putting them on notice simply means telling them, notifying them. “Look, there’s bed bugs in our apartment. And of course, I want you to take care of it. You put me into this infested apartment. I did not have the bed bugs before I got here. You, as the landlord, are responsible for the bed bugs in my apartment.”

One, they’re either going to say, “Okay, I’ll do the right thing, I am responsible for treating the bed bugs. I’m going to have this inspected. I’m going to treat it. I’m going to have it treated by professionals. And we’re going to take care of this for you.” That may happen. It also may not. Number two, they may say the age old excuse, which I’ve heard told to my clients dozens, if not hundreds of times, “We never had that problem before here. And you must have brought the infestation.”

When the Apartment Had Bed Bugs Before You Moved In

I find that landlords, and especially slumlords, will often do or say anything to avoid being held responsible for moving somebody into an infested apartment. They want to save money on infestation costs. They want to see if they can get away with not getting sued or otherwise held accountable for what they’ve done. And they’ll just basically say, “It wasn’t me.” The Shaggy defense: “It wasn’t me. It must’ve been you,” and they’ll ignore you.

Or what they may do, is they may attempt to self-treat, have the maintenance guys spray some chemicals, see how that goes. Of course, it’s going to go badly and the infestation is going to continue. Whitney, LLP’s lawyer to deal with bed bugs have experience holding landlords responsible for infestations.

Reporting a Bed Bug Infested Apartment to Code Enforcement or the Health Department

Now, the important thing is if the landlord is not addressing the infestation in the new apartment properly, as a tenant you’ve got some options. Of course, you can call an attorney, such as Whitney, LLP’s lawyer for bed bugs.

No matter where you are, you could call the city or county code enforcement or health department and make a complaint, which would result hopefully in a government employee coming out, doing an inspection and writing up the landlord.

Now some code enforcement and health department employees and investigators are better than others. Some are great. They’ll come out, they’ll hold the landlord accountable for everything, and they’ll actually follow up and take them to task. Others are not so good. And they may just come out, do a little inspection, never follow up, and it’s almost like nothing was done.

whitney 1 300x178 - Finding Bed Bugs in a New Apartment - Who is Responsible?

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

Compensation for Being Moved Into an Infested Apartment

A common question is, how do I get compensation for being moved into an infested apartment? For property I threw away, for the emotional distress, for these itchy bites across my body. Determining the right compensation for bed bugs in Maryland is something that Whitney, LLP’s experienced bed bug attorneys have done for hundreds of clients.

So the most important things, to recap, if you’ve got bed bugs in the new apartment, put your landlord on notice. If they don’t treat properly, reach out to code enforcement or an attorney. That will most likely get the landlord moving. And of course, number three, with the thought of a claim in mind, you certainly want to take pictures and video, and preserve evidence.

And when you do give notice to your landlord, you want to do it in writing, preferably over an email, so there’s no question that on date X at daytime or on a specific day, at a specific time, you gave notice and the landlord knew about it. And there can be no argument on at least that fact.

Lawyers To Sue a Maryland Landlord Responsible for Bed Bugs – Whitney, LLP

If you have a bed bug infestation problem in Maryland, call Whitney, LLP’s lawyers to discuss holding the landlord responsible and recovering compensation. We serve clients in bed bug cases across Maryland, including Baltimore, Pasadena, Cockeysville, Owings Mills, Temple Hills, Marlow Heights, Middle River, Germantown, Silver Spring, Frederick, Waldorf, Laurel, Glen Burnie, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Ellicott City and Salisbury.