Articles Posted in Landlord-Tenant

Just reading about bed bugs is enough to make most of us start to feel a bit itchy. Imagine then how hard it is to live with the blood-sucking pests and to have your landlord, someone who is supposed to ensure your rental is in habitable condition, ignore your pleas for help. Conditions like these led one California city to take the unusual step of instituting a pilot criminal program addressing bed bug matters, specifically focusing on instances in which an owner or landlord ignores bed bug infestations. These problems are also the reason Attorney Greg Brod has dedicated part of his practice to serving as a Northern California bed bug lawyer, representing tenants in disputes with disreputable landlords who operate unsafe and unsanitary rental properties in San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Rosa, and surrounding communities.

Concord’s Program Creates Penalties for Landlords When Bed Bug Complaints Are Ignored

Last Spring, the city of Concord decided to get tough on bed bugs. As reported in a May 2014 Contra Costa Times article, the city created a pilot program aimed at controlling the bed bug problem in rental housing. Under the program, bed bugs are considered a public nuisance and a police unit is granted authority to address tenant’s bed bug complaints, matters previously overseen by the Public Health Department. Pursuant to the new program, after a resident files a bed bug complaint the Police Department’s Code Enforcement Unit sends a notice to the property owners and they have 30 days to hire professionals to inspect and exterminate the unit. If there is no response within 10 days, an Environmental Health Division employee visits the unit. Fines for non-compliance begin a $100 and rise to $500 per citation plus a re-inspection fee.

Lawyers are taught to read each and every document carefully before signing or using it at trial. So, while Northern California bedbug eradication lawyer Greg Brod knows to read beyond a headline, he found the headlines of two articles in the Stanford Daily last fall said a mouthful on their own. The first headline dated November 9, 2014 happily touts “Bedbugs in Toyon Eradicated.” Less than a week later, the same paper declares “New Case of Bedbugs Found in Toyon after Reported Eradication.” These headlines headlight two interrelated truths — controlling a bedbug outbreak is hard, but residents in rented properties (including students in dorms) have a right to a vermin free life.

University Students Face Bed Bug Problems In early November, the Stanford paper reported that bedbugs had been seen in two rooms in an undergraduate residence hall. However, Rodger Whitney who heads the school’s residential living team told the paper that the problem was limited to those two rooms and the pests had been eradicated. The report notes an initial attempt to eliminate the bugs had failed but a more thorough three-week process had now been completed on one room and, per student request, a week-long procedure used on the second room. A Residential Advisor criticized the school’s communication efforts and the fact that bedbugs were not discussed in RA training. Six days later, the paper reported that another case of bedbugs had been found in the same dormitory. Apparently, the report only became public after yet another unit-specific effort to treat the pest invasion.

Eradicating Bed Bugs in Residential Spaces The University of Michigan’s Extension Program, a group focused on using University resources to tackle problems throughout their own community and the state overall, provides a relevant guidesheet titled “Prevention and Control of Bed Bugs in Residences.” While some of the advice (i.e. checking backpacks to see if bugs have hitched a ride) is student-oriented, much of it is applicable to everyone. The authors note that the best way to detect an invasion is to carefully check the area around where you sleep/rest (ex. mattresses, boxsprings, bed frames, and bedding) as well as under carpet edges, in cracks, and on luggage including purses or backpacks. You may see dead or live bugs, discarded skins, fecal matter, and/or brown and red stains. Once you confirm an infestation, stop and prepare for the step of control since disturbed bugs may move and worsen the infestation.

Many of us recall being tucked in to be at night as children with a teasing parent saying “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Thankfully for many of us bedbugs were just the stuff of nursery rhymes like cradles in treetops. In recent years, however, bedbug infestations have become all too real for more and more Americans. The pests strike across class lines and have been found in the fanciest hotels and the most rundown apartment complexes. When an outbreak is caused or extended by a landlord’s refusal to properly address the problem, our Northern California bedbug lawyer is ready and able to help.

Bedbugs: The Pest, The Impact, The Response

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), the Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agree that bedbugs are a public health pest. The EPA’s website includes a series of pages titled: “Bed Bugs: Get Them Out and Keep Them Out.” Adults are about the size of an apple seed with a flat oval-shaped body that balloons after a feeding and a “musty-sweetish” odor. Young bugs are translucent and can be tough to spot if not recently fed, while bed bug eggs are only the size of a pinhead and pearl-white, with an eye spot.

At the Brod Law Firm, there is an underlying theme that ties the majority of our cases together – a desire to use the law to help the injured and the wronged. Often, the wrongdoer held a power advantage over our client from a driver who hit a pedestrian, cyclist, or a stopped vehicle that couldn’t avoid the impact to a lawyer who violates her professional duties to a tenant at the mercy of an economically powerful landlord. The final example is becoming increasingly common and the power imbalance is growing as the rental market throughout Northern California tightens. After looking at a story that highlights the San Francisco rental shortage adding to this imbalance, this post will review some of the tools our Northern California tenants’ law firm uses to protect tenants in San Francisco and throughout the region.

Developer Distributes 6,800 Applications and Would-Be Tenants Return 2,595 Applications For a Mere 18 Apartments

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, when it construction began on an apartment complex at 2175 Market Street, developer Forest City vowed to include 20% affordable units, more than the 12% required by the City. From The Chronicle building’s lobby, Forest City passed out more than 6,8000 applications and 2,595 were returned by people interested in what amounted to 18 apartments. A lottery narrowed the field to 400 and, before a crowd of more than 100, the developer drew names in a process one attendee, who had been through two prior housing lotteries, compared to “auctioning off hope.”