Apartment Bedbug Infestation
My question involves public health law in the State of: Georgia
I was staying in an apartment that was infested with bed bugs. I called and emailed the real estate property that I was renting from about the problem along with some other electrical issues. I was getting the runaround for about 2-3 months and finally I sent an email to them mentioning that if the situation was not handled by a certain date that I was going to move out of the apartment. So the day before I was going to leave the apartment, the Realtor emailed me back saying that they usually don't pay for the treatments but we will pay for it this time. They sent me a checklist of what I need to do in order for them to spray. While waiting for them to come to treat the apartment I had done research about bed bugs and I found out that one treatment will not guarantee the elimination of the bed bugs. I called the company that was going to do the treatment and asked a few questions about how many treatments they were going to do, do they use heat along with the pesticides, will they come back if I see them again, and will they be in my TV and kitchen appliances. They said the TV and the appliances should be fine. I put my things in storage while they were getting the apartment treated. When I was transporting my TV in the storage; I seen a bed bugs crawl out of it. I have lost majority of my belongings (bed, clothes, bedding, appliances, and etc.) because of the infestation. I done the checklist and it still took them another month to spray. I moved out of the apartment a week after I spoke to the pest control company and they told me that its not a guarantee the bed bugs will not come back after the treatment. Now they are trying to get $1700 dollars from me for back rent because I was under a lease. I am a full-time college student on a very strict budget; I only received money from school every six months. That was the only income I was receiving at the time. I had to stay in a hotel paying $175 a week/ $700 a month plus food and personal items; I was going $200-$250 over my budget. I didn't qualify for food stamps, I didn't qualify for the food banks because I am a full-time student. I don't feel I owe them anything because of them giving me the runaround for that period of time;I feel that they should have taken care of business so I wouldn't have to break the lease. I am not about stay an apartment that I was constantly getting bit in; that is not healthy what if I got sick from the bites. My health is more important then the lease. I would like to know if I handled that the right way and some advice.
Re: Apartment Bedbug Infestation
Quote:
Quoting
MValerie2983
I was staying in an apartment that was infested with bed bugs.
You were the only tenant? You were in the apartment for how many months? You first noticed bedbugs after how many months of occupancy? Did any other units have bedbugs? If any did, were they infested before or after your unit was infested?