Bed Bug Lawsuits new york

This tips the scale for countless hotel, motel, inn, and lodging owners, because exterminating bed bugs even from one room comes at a high cost. Exterminators have a complicated job eradicating bed bugs; placing chemical baits are not effective at all since bed bugs feed only on blood.

Hotel Room

To exterminate a full-blown infestation throughout an entire building could possibly cost $50,000 to $60,000. There are several methods which include pyrethroid chemicals as well as applications of cold, heat, steam and vacuuming. Bed bugs can live up to, if not longer than 12 months without a meal, so making a room off limits for weeks after treatment may not help, either. The bedbugs are still liable to prowl in cracks no wider than an envelope, or a new group may arrive in someone else’s luggage.

To prevent this nightmare from happening or to prevent it from getting worse, certain hotels ask for their guests to take showers before entering any of the rooms; the guest’s are provided with track suits and a pair of slippers to wear while their clothes are being cleaned, and one Las Vegas hotel in particular replaces their guests’ suitcases with new luggage. These measures sound extreme, but if an establishment has even one customer who claims to be the victim of bed bugs that can eventually cost the facility untold amounts of money in lawsuits and loss of a ton of business.

Most property owners like to settle bed bug claims out of court in order to avoid lawsuits and a lot of negative publicity which can cause them to lose business. Many hotels are starting to create bed bug lawsuit plans and raising their rates to do so as per their lawyers and their insurers.

Cases : There are some examples of cases that can be reviewed and looked back on by owners and landlords that will give them a more in depth look at what has happened and used as precedent.

Bed bugs Bite

Back in 2003 two Chicago Plaintiffs were awarded $382,000 punitive and compensatory damages.

In 2004 a New York apartment tenant received a 45% abatement on rent for six months.

In 2007 a woman claimed she had an infestation of hundreds of bed bugs in a motel during her recuperation from cancer. She sued the motel for pain and mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation, medical bills and expenses. She claimed to have several bites and visible bugs in her bed. The owner of the motel is fighting back by denying her allegations claiming the motel passed two recent inspections.

In 2007 several people claimed that bed bug pesticide spraying at Wichita State University made them ill.

In 2008 in Chicago two residents are claiming injuries caused by bed bugs.

In 2008 there was an opera singer that filed a lawsuit against the Hilton Corporation for $6 million. Her alleged injuries involved close to 200 bed bug bites.

In 2005, a couple acquired bed bug bites and scabies from a hotel, but unfortunately ended up receiving only $4,000 through small claims court to cover financial losses. The individuals felt that lawyers didn’t see enough money in the case to take it and the issue wasn’t considered newsworthy by the media.

Other Litigation Concerns

Insurance frequently fails to cover the total amount for litigation costs; for example, corrective damages are not insurable. Also, if managers or landlords have been neglectful in dealing with bed bug infestations, many insurers won’t pay any claims. Only because it could’ve cost them a lot less if they would have treated the infestation earlier.

litigation

Numerous bed bug lawsuits have been filed against rental furniture companies, cruise lines, Laundromats, and dry cleaners. Landlords are now suing pest control companies, just as more bedbug victims are suing public municipalities. It is more than likely that soon there will be addendums to lease agreements which will hold tenants responsible for all bed bug infestations.

Bed bugs are reproducing in overwhelming amounts, by more than 500 percent over the past few years. Yet, these numbers do not have much impact on most hotels, with technologically advanced sanitation and severe standards of laundering, drying, vacuuming and using bedbug-proof mattress covers for all of their beds.

Recent Bed Bugs Lawsuits

Below are summaries of some lawsuits that were filed over the last two years:

1. New York, March 2009

In early 2009 a group of eleven tenants placed a lawsuit against the owner of an Inn located in Staten Island, New York. Among the eleven motel residents that were involved in this lawsuit was a couple who reported the situation to local news agencies, they also showed them a jar of almost a dozen bed bugs that were gathered from the furniture within their motel room.

The tenants sued for an undisclosed amount for the damages that were caused, contending that they were harshly affected by the bed bugs, even suffering from consequential illnesses such as scabies which is a contagious skin infection. These skin infections were confirmed by their medical doctor. The tenants also complained of having trouble sleeping every night, as well as having to go to multiple visits to the doctors and to hospitals.

The owner of the building made it clear that all efforts were carried out in order to ensure that the building was kept bug free, also making it clear that the rooms were sprayed for bed bugs on a daily basis. He is almost certain that the bed bugs were brought in by the tenants since many of them came from a homeless shelter and were placed at that motel.

2. Nashville, Tennessee, July 2009

In July of 2009, the local paper in Tennessee reported that a woman was suing her local Rent-a-Center for $575,000, claiming that the furniture that she had rented form them was infested with bed bugs. The spokesman for Rent-a-Centre claimed that the company pulls out all stops to make sure that the furniture they have available for rent is bed bug free. He even tried to say how bed bugs are very rare. He also said that Rent-a-Centre does everything they can to help customers out when they report a bed bug infestation. However, the customer claims she did report the infestation to the Rent-a-Center employees, and they all simply looked at her as if they were not distressed by the situation at hand.

Hotel

Even though the results of this lawsuit were not published, please take note that bed bugs in fact they are extremely common and are not a rarity in our society these days as some people want to believe. Therefore it is extremely difficult to guarantee that every single piece of furniture is bed bug free, unless it is treated.

3. Virgina Beach, Virginia, February 2009

In September of 2009, a woman sued the La Coquille Motel, which is an oceanfront establishment located on 16th street in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The woman sued for $100,000 for reimbursement of medical treatment for her son, due to the bed bug infestation. According to the woman her son was permanently damaged by the bed bugs, tormented by intense itching, pock marks, rashes, scarring, and public humiliation.

The owner of the hotel, states that the woman’s son already had scabs when they checked into the hotel. In fact, he says that he even asked them if everything was okay when he saw this, and that the woman said to him that the boy was suffering from a case of the chickenpox. Even though the story did hit news in September of 2009, the case was also reported to the public health department in February.

4. Portland State University, January 2010

As early as January of this year was the most recent bed bug lawsuit reported, when students of Portland State University reported a grave infestation in one of the Universities most popular apartment complexes on campus. One of the students, stated that he had to visit a doctor because he developed an allergic reaction that was caused by the bed bugs. There was fumigation used in the apartment rooms, but this process may and will cause the bed bugs to migrate into other rooms, which only serves to increase the bed bug infestation.

Even though the case has been reported to the administrative offices, the school itself is not allowing the students to recover their things from the rooms unless they pay an early move-out fee, or to simply pay the rest of the rent due on their lease agreement. For that reason many of the students are seeking legal assistance, in an attempt to sue the school for damages and for their belongings.

Conclusion

The cases that are mentioned above are just a small fraction of the total amount of lawsuits that have been filed, and that are being filed in this very moment against business owners and other establishments. The majority of the cases do not gather a lot of public attention, and many of them are settled out of court due to the consequence a lawsuit may have on the overall reputation of a business. Most business and company owners now would prefer to settle the case out of court and provide compensation, instead of dealing with all of the bad press that is associated with a bed bugs lawsuit.

The bed bug epidemic has worsened and continues to worsen all around the world. Therefore every business owner that operates a consumer friendly business such hospitality or furniture renting should exercise rigorous guidelines in order to avoid the significant financial loss that may result from bed bug lawsuits.

Landmark Case

A woman from Chicago is suing a hotel from New York for $20 million after she woke up in her bed at the hotel and she had over 600 bed bug bites.This woman said that after spending four nights last July at the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York, she woke up with red, irritated, itchy welts all over her body.She said that she felt as if her body was on fire and she grew even more scared when she saw blood on the bed.

Bed Bug

Her husband was at the hotel and slept in the same bed, but he was bitten nearly as bad as she was.For further investigations the bugs were sent to a lab at UIC and were found to indeed be bed bugs.After they made a report to the hotels officials, the couple was offered two free nights at the hotel. But they obviously declined the offer.

The hotel’s lawyer, said that neither he nor his client have seen the lawsuit yet so he could not yet comment on the matter. The lawyer continued to say that the Nevelel hotel in New York has regular treatments and inspections that are in place being done by professional pest control companies.

This is one of many suits filed in the US recently where bed bug claims have been filed due to bed bugs attacking people.

Bed bugs are bloodsucking vermin. Please note that they do not transmit any diseases. Their bites are painless because they inject an numbing solution to the area they will feed on. Therefore it can take several days for bite indications to even be visible or felt on the body.Red welts and irritation will go away after a week or so, but each person may react a little different to bed bug bites.

One woman who has seen several dermatologists, said that she is still dealing with the problem. She claims to be scarred and mentally-stressed every time she sleeps in a motel or a hotel and she is afraid that she might have unintentionally brought home bed bug eggs.She says that she travels now with a magnifying glass and a flashlight that may help her locate any existing bed bugs.

Some Information on Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs are tremendously common, and extremely annoying bloodsucking pests that infest millions of homes. Since the bed bug reproduces so quickly, and is so tiny that it is capable of hiding deep within the material of beds and other furniture, it may be incredibly tricky to wipe out an infestation completely. That is why bed bug extermination can be expensive, and is a huge burden for motel, hotel , and rental company owners everywhere.

Different than other pests, bed bugs do not submit to chemical baits that would tempt them out of their hiding spots. This is because they only feed only on blood. This makes it very tricky to bring the bed bugs to the exterior of the furniture where they may be exterminated.

Cost of Extermination

Even after a thorough extermination, it is an unfortunate reality that some bed bugs may still be present. Quarantining an area is pointless, since bed bugs may live for an entire year without feeding. This may possibly mean almost two visits from the exterminators may need to occur before the infestation is completely eradicated. In buildings with lots of intermittent visitors, such as hotels or motels, an infestation may return very easily, due to the fact that bed bugs can be transferred from room to room through articles of clothing and other personal belongings.Even though the cost of bed bug extermination can be estimated, the overall financial loss caused by these pests could be an colossal amount.

If you ever have any bug related issues in New York City, feel free to call us either at Beyond Pest Control. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough we are on call twenty four hours a day seven days a week to kill those bugs, we aren’t kidding whether you call us at 9 am or midnight we will be available to take your call and either get rid of the bug infestation, or answer any questions you may have concerning the bug issue. I can honestly guarantee that there will be someone to answer that call. We make it our business to make you bug free!

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Beyond Pest Control.

Our pest control specialists service all NYC boroughs, including Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island (both Nassau & Suffolk counties), Staten Island and even both Westchester & Rockland counties.