Good news for pest exterminators! It seems that New York's Governor David Paterson has just signed into the Administrative Code of the City of New York an amendment to the rental code. It requires that landlords provide potential tenants with a disclosure form detailing any treatments for bedbugs in the potential tenant's apartment building or condo. The form, provided by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), is available online and must be kept updated by the landlord or building manager. 
So why will this please pest controllers and exterminators? Because, with one swift swipe of the pen, the governor has effectively raised the revenues of exterminators throughout NYC.
How so, you say? Picture this: Picture Vinny, the exterminator and Louie the Landlord are having a conversation in the dimly lit hallway of a New York City brownstone:
"Well Lou, looks like we got the bedbugs in 21-B taken care of," says Vinnie.
Louie replies with a smirk, his gruff voice echoing down the hallway. "You mean the cock-a-roaches, don't you?"
"No," corrects Vinny, "I treated it for bedbugs. Apartment 21-B??
Louie pulls out a fifty dollar bill and folds it in his chubby hand. "Cock-a-roaches, Vinny," Louie says. "Them wuz cock-a-roaches. Sez so right here on my DHCR disclosure form." Louie hands the fifty to Vinny with a wink.
"Oh," says Vinny, as the penny drops. "You're RIGHT!" Cockroaches it is!" Vinny writes "Cockroach Treatment" on his exterminator's report, pockets the fifty and heads off to his next bedbug battle with a smile on his face and an afternoon at the dog track in his pocket.
Thus, not only has the governor added yet another piece of paper to the NYC rental agreement package, but he has effectively driven bedbug treatments and the exterminators who do them underground. Landlords will still have to have the treatments done. Tenants won't allow landlords to ignore their screams for exterminating the annoying little critters. But you can bet that when it comes time to disclose the fact, landlords will find ways to exterminate bedbug treatments from their records, one way or another.
I'm not saying we shouldn't require transparency and full disclosure from landlords to protect the health and comfort of renters. But I don't see voluntary disclosure by landlords as an effective way to do it.
One of the funny things about the bedbug amendment is that it does NOT require tenants to disclose the presence of bedbugs to the landlord or managing agent. So if a landlord doesn't know about the little buggers in the first place, how can he disclose their presence to the next tenant?
Don't know about you, but government drives me buggy sometimes!
Comments(2)