QUESTION:

I was speaking with a property manager today about bed bug control. He told me that a few judges in Massachusetts are trying to pass a law that states the following - the landlord / property manager will be responsible for putting a tenant up in a hotel/motel for the duration of a bed bug treatment, plus be responsible for any damages incurred during the treatment. This seems to me to be an impossible reality, as any landlord / property manager will go bust with people claiming they have bed bugs. This expense will continue until the rooms are declared bed bug free, which would be a minimum of 6 weeks. Have you heard anything like this? The pressure would be on the PCO to declare bug-free rooms sooner than it should be.

ANSWER:

Well, a few thoughts come to mind immediately, and the first is that what you heard from a property manager could, perhaps, be his emotional view of this and not exactly what is being proposed. I also would be certain that it is not judges that are pushing this, but likely (liberal) legislators who think that this would be a good politically correct protection for renters who have had this awful thing foisted upon them. Again, what the proposed legislation ACTUALLY says would be important to find out first before getting too angry or losing sleep over it.

My second thought, if we work with the premise that what you heard is exactly what is proposed, is that this is a shining example of where strong trade associations need to step in and work with those legislators. I have not heard of this specific kind of PC legislation, but in California there certainly have been many other proposals over the decades that would have been fairly unliveable for our industry, and because the state pest control association was strong and organized it was able to use its lobbying efforts to get those bills modified to something that was actually reasonable and responsible for both sides. I think it goes back to that saying that if you really want a puppy you start by asking your parents for a horse. People will come up with outrageous proposals knowing they will likely have to compromise down to something less.

My take on what you have heard on this is pretty much in line with your thoughts Bill. And, since the management of apartments was not the ones who brought the bed bugs into their buildings, but it was "irresponsible" tenants who transported them, rewarding those tenants with free stays in hotels would seem to unjustified. Of course, no one is going to own up to being the ones who brought in the bed bugs, and tenants surrounding the guilty party's unit  would also be involved in this disruption, so the fight begins. I can also see this from the point of view of those who propose this legislation. IF...... the big "if"....... innocent bystanders (those other tenants) were forced to vacate their homes while a bed bug service takes place, why should they suffer economically? It falls back on the question of who is going to foot the bill when these things happen, and generally the owners of businesses are perceived as the ones who can best afford it.

Somehow a compromise needs to be sought, and this means that immediately your state associations for pest management and for property managers need to contact their legislators, including whichever legislators are sponsoring this bill, and work with them to point out the drawbacks to this proposal and offer solutions that meet the needs of everyone. Too often some lobby group will approach a legislator with an emotional scenario - in this case the poor disrupted tenants who must leave their homes but cannot afford to pay for a motel for many weeks - and without knowing anything other than this side of the story the legislator puts together his proposal. If no one challenges it then it could sail on through. It is imperative that your association immediately become involved, and hopefully your company is a member of your state association.

Remember, these folks are called "Lawmakers" for a reason - they feel they must be introducing lots of new laws or they aren't doing their jobs.

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