NYC Real Estate Survival: How to Find an Apartment Without Bedbugs

Rest unassured: In the city that never sleeps, bedbugs are still a major cause of insomnia for thousands of New Yorkers trapped in infested apartments and buildings. Whether you're renting or buying, here's how to minimize the chance that they will be waiting behind your next front door.

Renters

• Plug the building's address into the BedBugRegistry.com and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Look for complaints of multiple apartment infestations within the past year and signs that the landlord is unresponsive.

• NYC landlords must give you a bedbug disclosure form stating whether the bloodsuckers have been detected in the apartment or in the building in the past year, and on what floor. Be extra concerned about infestations on your floor or adjacent floors. You should also ask how the landlord or management company is dealing with the problem. They should sound knowledgeable -- not defensive or dismissive.

• Ask the neighbors: Unlike co-op and condo owners, they have nothing to lose by telling you if there's a problem in the building.

Buyers

• Co-op and condo owners tend to keep bed bug problems quiet for fear of hurting resale values, so you won't learn much by asking the neighbors or poking around online. However, like landlords, co-op owners are required by law to tell buyers about a bed bug problem in the apartment in the past year, and in the building if they know about it (though this is far from guaranteed). Condo owners only have to disclose problems in their apartment, and only when asked.

• Either way, ask your attorney to put a seller's representation in the contract stating that to the seller's knowledge there has never been a bed bug problem in the building.

• Your attorney should also ask the property manager about the building's bed bug history and pay close attention to the response: Ignoring the question or passing the buck may indicate a problem.

A word about inspections...

Before you spend a few hundred dollars on a bedbug-sniffing dog (assuming you can get access to your prospective digs), understand that it will be challenging for a dog to find evidence if the apartment is empty as the bugs typically hibernate in the walls out of reach.

If the apartment is empty, consider scattering a variety of "passive" detectors (sticky traps) and "active" detectors (which emulate the presence of a human being) where the couch and bed used to be. The active monitors range from a fancy plug-in machine like the Nightwatch Bed Bug Monitor (around $400) to the lower-tech BB Active Alert Bed Bug Monitor ($25 + heating pads). Passive varieties include the CatchMaster Bedbug Detection System ($65/five dozen).

It can take around two weeks to detect signs of bedbugs in a vacant apartment (for best results, the apartment should be empty for less than a few weeks), so this is not a practical option for renter, nor for many buyers.

If you do go the dog route, bear in mind that false positives are a particular problem with untrained and/or scam-minded handlers. Make sure the company you hire is recommended by the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association.

If you're moving from a bedbug problem, consider taking extra precautions against bringing hitchhikers with you: Add an extra night to your move to have your moving truck fumigated. This also eliminates the possibility of picking bedbugs up in transit.

Finally, just because you move into an apartment (or building) without bedbugs does not, of course, guarantee it will always be without bedbugs. Early detection -- achieved by bedbug "proofing" your apartment -- is the best way to minimize the expense and psychological trauma of a bedbug infestation.

 

Follow Teri Karush Rogers on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@bricku

Comments

[bobwllms57]

09:56 AM on 02/29/2012

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[Henry LaRoch]

11:23 PM on 01/04/2012

"Make sure the company you hire is recommended by the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association."

The very same association you recommended is the problem. A bigger scam then the dog itself. If you want to know if you have a bed bug problem, you have to find evidence of them, period. Pay for an inspector who will do just that, inspect show evidence.

[Mari1969]

03:58 PM on 01/04/2012

Great article, wish it had been written back in March 2011. We moved into a bedbug infested apartment in Riverdale for 3 days; that's how long(short) it took us to see bedbugs. The bedbug disclosure statement that our ex-landlord gave us only stated that there WAS an infestation on the FLOOR which our apartment was located and the floor had last been exterminated 10/2010 for prevention. Turns out, about 30% of the apartments were still infested, one of them was ours which had two prior tenants in less than a year (disclosed by the neighbors). We left 80% of our belongings behind because we did not want to later infest another apartment. We later learned the apartment had been exterminated the day prior to us moving with a liquid solution that left streaks on the semigloss painted walls - hard to see and it's odorless! OUR broker who we retained and paid a month's rent to show us the apartment was much aware of the problem. Renter beware: Don't let the location throw you off. If you see something that just sounds way too good pricewise, it may be-Check out the bedbugregistry and hpd sites. The landlord took us to court for back rent because we didn't empty out the apartment. We broke our lease and got ALL of our money back with not attorney. Now we're suing them for not disclosing and for our loss!

[bedbugcommunity]

01:54 PM on 01/04/2012

Thanks for the link to the 'Bed bug tips, bed bug facts, bed bug prevention advice and more!' in you're around the web section.. was VERY helpful!

[HelloWerld]

11:46 AM on 01/04/2012

I know they exist, but I think people are over hyping it. In the 5+ years neurotics have been spinning themselves into a frenzy, I've known nobody who's had them.

[getpeace]

01:00 AM on 01/04/2012

Put zippered covers over your mattresses and box-springs. Don't have dust ruffles that hang and drag on the floor. Don't let the bed touch the wall. Vacuum thoroughly and regularly. Eliminate clutter. Doing simple steps like these will frustrate the bugs and disallow them from turning your bed into a "home base". And if their "home base" is in the walls, they will be terribly frustrated by your zipper covers. Just frustrate them....they're just bugs....we're a LOT smarter than they are.

[Richard Pollack]

09:24 PM on 01/03/2012

Bed bug registry sites are merely testimonials. Whereas some information may be valid, many other reports are mistaken or nefarious. If an insect or other creature is discovered in a hotel or at home, it makes sense to capture it (or a good digital image) and have it identified by an independent expert. This can be useful to tenants and owners of homes and apartments, as well as guests and managers of hotels. Educational information that I offered for many years at the Harvard School of Public Health is now accessible (at no cost and without commercial agenda) at: https://identify.us.com. Resources and instructions to obtain rapid, independent, confidential and expert evaluations of presumed specimens and digital images are also available on the site.
-Richard Pollack, PhD (IdentifyUS LLC)