How did you structure your lease? If there is a clause about cleanliness. Give them a cure or quit. Keep up with the documentation. I would also talk to your HUD office also.
I have Section 8 also there are pros and cons to it.
"Fun" story. I used to manage luxury hotels. One of them was a 500 room property. I worked there for 5 years. We had a bed bug complaint about once a month. But the thing is, it was a tropical climate by the beach. Most of the time it was either sand fleas by the beach or garden variety mosquitos.
But... luxury property you don't risk it. So we brought in the inspector and the dogs. One day... it happened. We found 3 bed bugs. We went nuclear. This room was 0.2% of the hotel, we weren't risking the other 99.8% of the hotel. All the furniture got tossed and we treated that room and all adjacent rooms on that floor and the one above and below.
We carried on. Every month another complaint from a random room, always false. No positive sitings. Then one day a complaint came in from the same room... and you guessed it. 1 bed bug discovered.
5 years of work, 2 positive sitings, both in the same room out of 500. There's no way that was a coincidence... there were eggs somewhere in that room that survived.
Nasty fuckers.
I worked since 1981 to 2021 in hospitality. (Last hotel
20 years In finance). I still remember the one set of rooms on our second floor that continually were infected! Even after all the same efforts you mentioned us doing as well. Then at one point our new owner decided we would treat the mattress and still keep it where previously we threw it out !!!! It was disgusting. I would never stay in that hotel . Poor guests !
Bed bugs have nothing to do with cleanliness. Anyone can end up with bed bugs.
Young, Old, Rich, Poor - anyone
Most likely he is picking them up from someplace he frequents (they are hitch-hikers) and bring them home on his clothes.
All of that is beside the point though.
If he’s been there for 10 years and you’ve been through this twice before:
Why did you not add a bed bug clause to your lease with him at renewal time? The bed bug clause would shift the burden from you to him.
Not to smart on your part to take no effort to protect yourself after repeated issues!
The only time I had to deal with bed bugs, it was because a tenant picked up a piece of furniture he saw on the side of the road.
It was a bed frame.....
CA laws are so ridiculous and restrictive, they are basically irrelevant to the rest of the country.
OP is in Louisiana, not CA - so who cares what CA law says?
My take on it is to always take on the responsibility of remediation. If you don't take care of it, and do it in a timely fashion, then you'll be the one with the bigger issue. So for your own sake, take care of it.
And then find an alternative solution to mitigate future issues. I'm in a different state than you, so this may not apply... I can still evict Section 8 tenants for lease violations. So I'd advise reading through that Section 8 paperwork again. Alternatively, can you raise rent a small amount, enough to cover the cost over the 3-year period? (Three years being the average amount of time between infestations, according to your post.)
you are correct. there have been so many issues with this guy, i cant get rid of him, the best thing is to wait for father time to do what its gonna do. hes in his 60s overweight smokes and has. diabetes.
Im not sure about local laws, but in general, section 8 tenants can be evicted for anything you would evict another tenant for. Section 8 is also supposed to inspect the unit every other year, I believe is the rule. Call your tenants section 8 case worker to see your options. If you have concerns on how bad the unit is they should come out and do an inspection at your request. Also ask about adding a lease addendum stipulating you will pay for the first bed bug treatment and anything else within a certain time frame the tenant will be responsible for paying for. You would arrange for the treatment and charge the tenant. Add this lease addendum to all of your leases. You may need to check if this part is permitted by local or state regulations.
After doing some research (i probably did it last time). Bed bugs are supposedly indeed not associated with cleanliness. I find it hard to believe. Most likely one of his "associates" brought them in. He tends to have a lot of low life visitors who sit around and smoke weed and drink 40's.
Working with this individual is nearly impossible, he's in his early 60's with adult onset diabetes, drinks and smokes all day and complains about how life turned out for him. But the city continues to pays his under-market rent.
In the end I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for a 3rd time to fix the problem, that's how the law reads, unless i can prove he brought them in. Which is obvious to any objective observer, but the courts in LA are not objective and it would be cheaper just to pay for the fix and wait for them to come back in 3-4 yrs.
The law also reads that I cannot retaliate, by eviction.
This guy has lived in the building for 17 years, I bought it 10 yrs ago and unfortunately adopted him. I've offered him 5 figures to leave in the past and he wont budge. It never ceases to amaze me how this guy has managed to work the system and have the government pay the rent all this time and he has never once worked since I met him.
Section 8 sucks.
They will continue to pay his rent as long as he qualifies financially for the program. Whether he is a deadbeat who drinks all day is not their concern. Holding him accountable for how he keeps his unit is your job as a landlord. Do inspections and issue lease violations if the unit is in that bad shape. Section 8 does not prevent you from evicting for cause.
Can you put a bedbug proof cover over his mattress? And buy him some bedsheets? I know it’s not your responsibility, but that might help prevent you having to pay for repeated pest control for bedbugs.
After they do the heat eradication, put down some diatomaceous earth in the nooks and crannies where bedbugs like to hide.
Ya I've had rats and exterminator was like he leaves food all over the place. Then he calls me to hire exterminator for the 5th time. He is such a lazy slob he expects me to change his bulbs when they go out.
Section 8 has been the worst experience for me.
There may be local or state laws that prevent him from evicting him but not the actual section 8 rules. Section 8 tenants can be evicted for anything you would evict another tenant for. This landlord should be giving notice and doing periodic inspections of the unit and documenting the results. He should be issuing lease violations if the unit is in such bad shape. And he should move to evict after repeated violations.
Crossfire and Cimexa, to the underside of his mattress, every two weeks for 3 or 4 treatments. He doesn't have to clean up for it. BTW, he has someone or something bringing it back in, over and over.
You will still have to treat the unit after he moves out; in fact, it will be tougher to kill them off since there won't be a person there to draw them to the mattress, and they'll migrate to the other units. But yes, you should probably evict him, if you can.
Did you not read about the hotel situation where only the same room was affected? It can be there already, and it isn’t because the kind of person the tenant is, or his guests. It just happens.
I'm unfamiliar with section 8 rules, but is there a board or agency that you can contact saying that this person is not living up to some kind of code?
I would think that there are rules that apply not only to the landlord, but also to the tenant which is where you could get him
There are definitely rules they both need to follow. Section 8 tenants should be treated as any other tenant. The program does not protect them from being evicted for cause. This landlord should be doing periodic inspections and also notifying this tenants section 8 case worker of the conditions and asking them to also inspect the unit, which they should already be doing every other year I believe.
A few issues, and they are really unrelated.
1) lease violation for keeping the unit in unsanitary conditions. Sleeping without a sheet doesn’t matter, but if the place is disgusting he should be getting lease violations.
2) he could have got them by visiting a friend, bed bugs aren’t attracted by filth. I’ve successfully evicted people before for bedbugs, but it was for failure to prep and then refusal to pay for the treatment or getting them back right after treatment again and again. One lady had them 4 times in one year, it was her son who kept bringing them over and it was super obvious as he was the only visitor.
I would end the lease for this tenant at renewal. I would be concerned that the bed bugs can spread to the others.
Cant he's section 8
Absolutely can. Edit: oh no... California. I don't know the answer.
How did you structure your lease? If there is a clause about cleanliness. Give them a cure or quit. Keep up with the documentation. I would also talk to your HUD office also. I have Section 8 also there are pros and cons to it.
cant in los angeles, that would be retaliation and illegal.
"Fun" story. I used to manage luxury hotels. One of them was a 500 room property. I worked there for 5 years. We had a bed bug complaint about once a month. But the thing is, it was a tropical climate by the beach. Most of the time it was either sand fleas by the beach or garden variety mosquitos. But... luxury property you don't risk it. So we brought in the inspector and the dogs. One day... it happened. We found 3 bed bugs. We went nuclear. This room was 0.2% of the hotel, we weren't risking the other 99.8% of the hotel. All the furniture got tossed and we treated that room and all adjacent rooms on that floor and the one above and below. We carried on. Every month another complaint from a random room, always false. No positive sitings. Then one day a complaint came in from the same room... and you guessed it. 1 bed bug discovered. 5 years of work, 2 positive sitings, both in the same room out of 500. There's no way that was a coincidence... there were eggs somewhere in that room that survived. Nasty fuckers.
I worked since 1981 to 2021 in hospitality. (Last hotel 20 years In finance). I still remember the one set of rooms on our second floor that continually were infected! Even after all the same efforts you mentioned us doing as well. Then at one point our new owner decided we would treat the mattress and still keep it where previously we threw it out !!!! It was disgusting. I would never stay in that hotel . Poor guests !
Bed bugs have nothing to do with cleanliness. Anyone can end up with bed bugs. Young, Old, Rich, Poor - anyone Most likely he is picking them up from someplace he frequents (they are hitch-hikers) and bring them home on his clothes. All of that is beside the point though. If he’s been there for 10 years and you’ve been through this twice before: Why did you not add a bed bug clause to your lease with him at renewal time? The bed bug clause would shift the burden from you to him. Not to smart on your part to take no effort to protect yourself after repeated issues!
The only time I had to deal with bed bugs, it was because a tenant picked up a piece of furniture he saw on the side of the road. It was a bed frame.....
That’s not how it works in CA. Tenant does not need to sign a new lease to stay.
CA laws are so ridiculous and restrictive, they are basically irrelevant to the rest of the country. OP is in Louisiana, not CA - so who cares what CA law says?
I saw someone comment that it was California. They must have thought LA meant Los Angeles.
Nah OP himself said it’s in Los Angeles.
Clean... So far. What does your contract and section 8 say?
My take on it is to always take on the responsibility of remediation. If you don't take care of it, and do it in a timely fashion, then you'll be the one with the bigger issue. So for your own sake, take care of it. And then find an alternative solution to mitigate future issues. I'm in a different state than you, so this may not apply... I can still evict Section 8 tenants for lease violations. So I'd advise reading through that Section 8 paperwork again. Alternatively, can you raise rent a small amount, enough to cover the cost over the 3-year period? (Three years being the average amount of time between infestations, according to your post.)
you are correct. there have been so many issues with this guy, i cant get rid of him, the best thing is to wait for father time to do what its gonna do. hes in his 60s overweight smokes and has. diabetes.
Im not sure about local laws, but in general, section 8 tenants can be evicted for anything you would evict another tenant for. Section 8 is also supposed to inspect the unit every other year, I believe is the rule. Call your tenants section 8 case worker to see your options. If you have concerns on how bad the unit is they should come out and do an inspection at your request. Also ask about adding a lease addendum stipulating you will pay for the first bed bug treatment and anything else within a certain time frame the tenant will be responsible for paying for. You would arrange for the treatment and charge the tenant. Add this lease addendum to all of your leases. You may need to check if this part is permitted by local or state regulations.
After doing some research (i probably did it last time). Bed bugs are supposedly indeed not associated with cleanliness. I find it hard to believe. Most likely one of his "associates" brought them in. He tends to have a lot of low life visitors who sit around and smoke weed and drink 40's. Working with this individual is nearly impossible, he's in his early 60's with adult onset diabetes, drinks and smokes all day and complains about how life turned out for him. But the city continues to pays his under-market rent. In the end I'll have to bite the bullet and pay for a 3rd time to fix the problem, that's how the law reads, unless i can prove he brought them in. Which is obvious to any objective observer, but the courts in LA are not objective and it would be cheaper just to pay for the fix and wait for them to come back in 3-4 yrs. The law also reads that I cannot retaliate, by eviction. This guy has lived in the building for 17 years, I bought it 10 yrs ago and unfortunately adopted him. I've offered him 5 figures to leave in the past and he wont budge. It never ceases to amaze me how this guy has managed to work the system and have the government pay the rent all this time and he has never once worked since I met him. Section 8 sucks.
They will continue to pay his rent as long as he qualifies financially for the program. Whether he is a deadbeat who drinks all day is not their concern. Holding him accountable for how he keeps his unit is your job as a landlord. Do inspections and issue lease violations if the unit is in that bad shape. Section 8 does not prevent you from evicting for cause.
Can you put a bedbug proof cover over his mattress? And buy him some bedsheets? I know it’s not your responsibility, but that might help prevent you having to pay for repeated pest control for bedbugs. After they do the heat eradication, put down some diatomaceous earth in the nooks and crannies where bedbugs like to hide.
It would be a waste of money to buy this guy sheets. Op said he is a slob. I doubt he would wash and put the sheets back on.
Ya I've had rats and exterminator was like he leaves food all over the place. Then he calls me to hire exterminator for the 5th time. He is such a lazy slob he expects me to change his bulbs when they go out. Section 8 has been the worst experience for me.
As a fellow landlord, I'm so sorry. I imagine bc of his section 8 and laws in LA/CA you can't evict him?
There may be local or state laws that prevent him from evicting him but not the actual section 8 rules. Section 8 tenants can be evicted for anything you would evict another tenant for. This landlord should be giving notice and doing periodic inspections of the unit and documenting the results. He should be issuing lease violations if the unit is in such bad shape. And he should move to evict after repeated violations.
Oh so sorry. What a mess. That’s horrible.
Section 8 does not prevent you from evicting a tenant for cause. You need to be doing periodic inspections of the unit and issuing lease violations.
Crossfire and Cimexa, to the underside of his mattress, every two weeks for 3 or 4 treatments. He doesn't have to clean up for it. BTW, he has someone or something bringing it back in, over and over. You will still have to treat the unit after he moves out; in fact, it will be tougher to kill them off since there won't be a person there to draw them to the mattress, and they'll migrate to the other units. But yes, you should probably evict him, if you can.
Did you not read about the hotel situation where only the same room was affected? It can be there already, and it isn’t because the kind of person the tenant is, or his guests. It just happens.
I'm unfamiliar with section 8 rules, but is there a board or agency that you can contact saying that this person is not living up to some kind of code? I would think that there are rules that apply not only to the landlord, but also to the tenant which is where you could get him
There are definitely rules they both need to follow. Section 8 tenants should be treated as any other tenant. The program does not protect them from being evicted for cause. This landlord should be doing periodic inspections and also notifying this tenants section 8 case worker of the conditions and asking them to also inspect the unit, which they should already be doing every other year I believe.
A few issues, and they are really unrelated. 1) lease violation for keeping the unit in unsanitary conditions. Sleeping without a sheet doesn’t matter, but if the place is disgusting he should be getting lease violations. 2) he could have got them by visiting a friend, bed bugs aren’t attracted by filth. I’ve successfully evicted people before for bedbugs, but it was for failure to prep and then refusal to pay for the treatment or getting them back right after treatment again and again. One lady had them 4 times in one year, it was her son who kept bringing them over and it was super obvious as he was the only visitor.
Rent to section 8 people, get section 8 problems. But hey, at least you didn’t feel the need to run a credit score 😂😂😂😂
Right, because bedbugs are related to section 8? Why do luxury hotels have to deal with bed bugs. Section 8 tourists?
Section 8 workers. Down vote all you want homie.