Arizona will join Illinois, Maine, and New York as the first states to enact substantive bed bug related legislation. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law legislation assigning various responsibilities to landlords and tenants pertaining to bed bugs in multi-family housing.

Under Arizona's new bed bug law, landlords will be obligated to provide existing and new tenants with educational materials on bedbugs and are prohibited from knowingly leasing a bed bug infested dwelling unit. The legislation also requires tenants to notify the landlord of a bed bug infestation and disallows them from knowingly moving bed bug infested materials into a dwelling unit.

While there is some good news about the upcoming bed bug legislation, as always there will be confusion involved because either a landlord or a tenant does not understand the new law and the main question(s) will be:

* "Who's paying for the Bed Bug Treatment?"

* Were there bed bugs already here?

* Did you have bed bugs at your last place?

This normally is a situation of Landlord vs. Tenant!

For Everyone's Peace of Mind

Landlords:

* Landlord needs to have a solid Bed Bug Protocol established within their leases as a normal part of their rental business.

* Maintain a budget for pest control and bedbug remediation to avoid excessive treatment costs. (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.) Hire and maintain a professional Pest Management Company, and keep detailed treatment records - before the bed bugs get started or the tenant moves in.

* General pest control services does not constitute treatment for Bed Bugs. A good Pest Management company will provide an actual Bed Bug program - get it in writing.

Tenants:

* Tenants need to do their part as well - understand lease upon moving in - find out what does it say about bedbugs? Make an inspection prior to moving in. Hire a Pest Management Professional to verify there are no bed bugs in your new potential home, and on your personal belongings that you are moving in. This level of responsibility may protect your liability for the cost of bed bug treatment.

* Also, once living in the rental - tenants must take immediate action within 3 days to properly notification to your landlord in a timely manner that you believe you have bed bugs.

* You must also allow the inspections and treatment to be made on a timely basis by a professional exterminator.

* If and only if your landlord is unresponsive (and you can prove you followed the rules) do you have a chance of being reimbursed for the fees of a bed bug treatment performed by a professional you hire. You must give your landlord the proper notices and chance to resolve the problem first. Don't take matters into your hands, and expect reimbursement.

* Don't assume you won't be responsible for the treatment costs, and although the law spells out some reimbursement costs and rights you have, check your lease - you could have signed a lease that specifically states you are responsible for bed bug treatment.

* Also, you may have to prove you met your responsibilities to maintain your dwelling to be free of bed bugs. If you bring home a mattress or a couch from a yard sale - you could also bring home bed bugs.

* While the law stipulates reimbursement may not be more than $500 or up 1/2 the rent whichever is greater, generally this is only a small portion of the actual costs to remediate bedbugs, especially a severe infestation.

Please read, learn and understand the new laws before assuming you have some new Right to Bed Bug treatment at no charge, and most importantly keep detailed records of what you have done either as a landlord or a tenant, and of course use a professional pest management company like Invader Pest Management. I suggest that both Landlords and Tenants make all their notifications to one another in writing, and that all leases be thoroughly reviewed before entering into.

Section 33-131 is the meat of the bed bug legislation - Bedbug control; landlord and tenant obligations; definitions A.

Read the entire Arizona bed bug legislation to understand what the responsibilities are for each the landlord and the tenant.

If you have a bed bug infestation, contact Phoenix pest control company Invader Pest Management right away. The longer you wait, the more bed bugs there will be.

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Fred

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