In most states, property owners carry the burden for the elimination of bed bugs in their properties. Some say it is not fair because it isn’t the property owners bringing bed bugs in, but if the owners are not held accountable for the safety of their properties who is?
Who’s flipping the bill?
You own an 80 unit building. Two tenants from opposite sides of the building call in the same week that are experiencing bites and think they may be bed bugs. You send in an expert and they verify it is bed bugs and the units must be treated.
One family has a disabled elderly mother whose immune system is severely challenged and is on an oxygen machine. The other family has two small children under the age of six and the mom is pregnant with her third child.
You can’t afford anything but a standard chemical treatment yet your tenants are concerned about possible side effects of chemicals and refuse to allow the use of chemicals in their units. Furthermore, you recently heard that bed bugs are becoming increasingly immune to chemical treatments.
What are the consequences of doing what you can afford versus what works for your tenants? And with chemical treatments there is extensive preparation that may or may not be something the tenants are able or want to do themselves. You’ve heard that chemicals only force bedbugs into the walls and spread the problem to surrounding units.
What if they show up in other units?
What if they don’t allow the pest professional in?
What if they don’t have their unit prepared?
If you are ineffective in treating the problem, will you be sued?
These are some of the problems landlords everywhere are faced with every day with bed bug situations.
The importance of a proactive protocol for bed bugs
The blatant truth is, the landlord could have saved him or herself these nightmares if they had a strategy for bed bugs upfront. There’s an old saying, “Don’t cry over spilled milk”, meaning don’t waste your time worrying about things you cannot change. After the milk has spilled, is no time to prevent it from happening you just have to clean it up.
Bed bugs are like spilled milk, once they are introduced, there is no getting around it; they have to be cleaned up. If you ignore them and don’t treat, they will spread rapidly over whole buildings and communities. The importance of educating residing and new tenants, having proactive policies and procedures in place and having regular inspection now becomes a reality.
More renters are seeing the potential of bed bugs in apartments and are refusing standard treatments as an option for bed bugs forcing landlords to pay for heat treatments which may not be in the budget.
What “if” you had a program that prevents all this from happening?
What “if” you can handle any bed bug situation swiftly before they become “infestations?”
What “if” you could afford heat treatments every time?
What “if” you didn’t have to reach into your budget for funds and your budget stays intact?
MassBedBugBusters has successfully helped owners of multi-unit properties prevent having to make threatening decisions based on “after the fact” bed bug situations by providing layers of protection.
Give us a call, we’ll show you how and let us help you and your tenants sleep better at night!
