I am planning on addressing this on my blog here on Habitat (I'm Mr. Manager). I have two separate cases of bed bugs in different Cooperatives now and they are handling the situation differently. In speaking with a colleague last night about this, he attended a NYC Bed Bugs seminar and the way that they spun it was that the Shareholder and the Cooperative Corporation should be splitting it. I'll tell you how we are handling it.

Building 1: Having inspected roughly half of the units in the building, we have found that approximately 35% or so of the building was infected and needed to be exterminated. Even though this may be considered a Shareholder issue (you can take legal action for payment against the person who brought them into the building if you can prove it), this Board decided that they would cover the cost of the exterminations because they needed 100% of the infected apartments to be treated. They would not take the chance of having 1 Shareholder refusing service and then continuing the spread to new and previously infected apartments. This building will be doing an assessment back to the Shareholders to cover the out of pocket expense for the Cooperative. So in essence, the individual Shareholders are paying for it, although a slightly lower percentage than if only those who were infected paid.

Building 2: We received reports of 2 apartments out of 130 or so that were infected in the apst few weeks. The building felt that it was prudent to get an inspection done ASAP and to cover the cost for that inspection. In both buildings we have used a trained dog, which is the only sure way to ensure 100% accuracy for infestations. The infestations are only approximately 10-15% of the building and because of this low number, the Board has decided that they will initially cover the cost of the exterminations to ensure that all of the work is taken care of and they will be this back to the individual Shareholders who are treated, and will not do it through a building-wide assessment.

I would check with your attorney to see if either of these methods will work for your building. The important thing is to make sure that you contain the spread as quickly as possible. Shoot them first and ask questions later.

Hope that helps.

thank very much for the useful reply. but not how I heard it - the coop pays - it is in the lease- the lessor must be responsible for vermin . no grey area. no assessment - it is not a capitol improvement. sponsor-owned apartment = sponsor pays. if sponsor does not effectively treat the problem , then he pays for all effected apartments.

For one, this encouraged a coop - or a sponsor - not to be cheap and ti hire a high end extemrination company. you must have a very very bad situation if you have 35% of apt effected in a building. how is that possible??

you are right about the dog - it should also inspect laundry rooms, mailrooms and other public areas.