The New Jersey Assembly bed bug bill

We mentioned the New Jersey Assembly bill, A3203, briefly in December and now that it has moved to the Senate—see the sponsors’ press release (PDF)—we should take a look at the language of the bill as amended. The bill in the Senate is S2257.

This is the final version reported out of committee on January 15 and passed by the Assembly.

‘Exponential infestations’ somewhere became ‘the presence of bedbugs in exponential numbers’ and ‘presence’ is now used instead of infestation almost throughout.

Co-ops and condos are excluded; “owners” includes owners of  “seasonal use” rental units.

One of the statements of fact was amended as follows:

The owner of a multiple dwelling, with the cooperation of tenants, is in the best position to coordinate the extermination of bedbug populations in that multiple dwelling.

It’s a very good statement.

A bed bug pamphlet

The Department of Health and Senior Services is to develop a bed bug education pamphlet that will include information on how bed bugs spread, prevention and treatment, the state’s guidelines for “disinfecting, labeling and reselling mattresses,” tenant behaviors that are risk factors for “attracting and supporting the presence of bedbugs,” and a statement on landlord/tenant rights and responsibilities.

The bill’s language on this last point is:

A statement describing the legal rights and responsibilities imposed on tenants and owners of multiple dwellings by this act, including, but not limited to the owner’s duty to keep the premises free of the presence of bedbugs, a tenant’s duty to notify the owner of the presence of bedbugs, and the potential financial liability of a tenant for repeated eradications caused by either a failure to properly maintain the unit or for interfering with the owner’s access to the unit for inspection or eradication purposes.

The bill does not define what constitutes failure to properly maintain the unit, but perhaps there is already other law that addresses this?

Within 90 days of the publication of this pamphlet, all multiple dwelling owners are to deliver copies to their tenants.

I have two problems with the pamphlet as envisioned here.

This is the definition of the risk factors that tenants are to be warned about:

“Risk factors” means tenant behaviors that increase the possibility of the presence of bedbugs in a unit and include, but are not limited to, living with a domestic pet, furnishing with older furniture that has not been properly sanitized, and travel to tropical climates without proper precautions.

Travel to tropical climates without precautions?  Really, why is this being perpetuated?  If I were making a list, I’d find room for riding the bus in Manhattan. Or traveling to Canada. And while we’re at it, turtles are domestic pets…

The second problem?

New Jersey’s guidelines for disinfecting mattresses are just sad.  Including them in the contemplated bed bug information pamphlet conveys no benefit of effective warning.

Notices to tenant

There are three specific warnings to tenants in the pamphlet:

“If you notice or suspect the presence of bedbugs in your unit, you are required by law to promptly notify the owner or manager of your unit. You may be responsible for the costs of exterminating bedbugs if you do not notify your owner or manager.”

and

“Upon reasonable notice, you must grant the owner of your apartment access to the apartment for purposes of an inspection for or the eradication of the presence of bedbugs. This inspection may include a visual inspection and manual inspection of your personal belongings, limited to bedding or furniture. If bedbugs are found in the unit, additional access and measures may be required. If you do not grant your landlord access for purposes of an inspection for or the eradication of the presence of bedbugs or if you obstruct access for purposes of visual inspection, your landlord may not be responsible for any costs and damages relating to and arising from bedbugs in your unit. You may also be responsible for the costs of repeated eradication of bedbugs if you fail to properly maintain your dwelling.”

[Amendment notations removed.]

The third tenant warning is notice that the presence of bed bugs will be deemed damages to the apartment upon moving out and eradication costs can be deducted from security deposits.

Owner’s responsibilities

The owner will be responsible for maintaining a multiple dwelling free of bed bugs. (A multiple dwelling under NJ law (PDF) is a building of 3 or more rental units—or a group of ten or more buildings of 2 units each.)

Any tenant who notices bed bugs or suspects bed bugs based on “characteristic bite marks” must notify the owner in writing.

The owner must begin eradication procedures within 10 days. The owner must also ascertain (this really should mean inspect… but it doesn’t say inspect?) whether there are bed bugs in other units. In the original bill, if infestation were found in two or more units or in common areas, the owner would have been required to provide written warning to all tenants in the building. In the amended version, the owner must provide written notice to the tenants in the infested apartments (and only to those tenants) and eradicate the infestation in those apartments.

It’s not clear what the landlord is meant to do to find out if there are bed bugs in other units. The bill says the landlord must

ascertain the presence of bedbugs in other dwelling units or common areas

If this means inspect, then it should say inspect or cause to be inspected.   Asking the tenants whether they have bed bugs in their apartments would, obviously, not suffice.  Also, all units?

The landlord must provide 48 hours written notice to the tenant in order to gain access to inspect or eradicate bed bugs.  The tenant’s liability upon refusal is described in the notices to tenant quoted above.

If the landlord does not act within ten days, the tenant can notify the local health board and the health board will inspect and engage a pest management company and then bill or recover from the landlord.

Owners would be required to include a provision in leases certifying that they have inspected the apartment for bed bugs. Inspections would be required at every lease renewal and new lease signing.

These pages may be of related interest:

1. New Jersey bed bug bill out of committee
2. The New Jersey quandary about who is responsible
3. Where does it say…? 6 essential documents to survive an argument about bed bug dispersal
4. S2774
5. Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008: a bill in the US Congress