Bedbug Alert

The new york city counciL passed legislation this year that requires all multi-family residential buildings, including co-ops and condos, to file a bedbug history with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). That history must then be posted in “a prominent place within the building” or given to residents when signing or renewing their leases. The history must detail any units that had bedbugs over the past year; which of those units took “eradication methods,” such as calling an exterminator; and which methods were used to eliminate the pests. It also has to note if any units still had bedbugs after treatment. 

The law went into effect in early November. That was when boards needed to start gathering bedbug infestation histories from each unit in their buildings. According to HPD, those histories should be filed for the previous year, from November 2017 through November 2018. That filing should occur between December 1, 2018, and January 1, 2019. In subsequent years, owners will be required to file a report for each dwelling unit. 

This filing may seem familiar to boards and managers since New York State started requiring a similar disclosure of bedbug history beginning in August 2010. That law requires all new residential tenants to be given a one-year bedbug history when signing a new lease.