Get Ahead of Bedbug Problems by Addressing the Issue in House Rules
Nov. 27, 2012 — A co-op board I represent was confronted with the problem of bedbug infestation in several units in the building. A few individual apartments had become infested with bedbugs, but never notified the board, the managing agent or their neighbors. Because these unit-owners did not properly remedy the bedbug situation, it spread to other apartments.
Once the board and managing agent became aware of the problem, they made sure to take the proper steps to stop the spread of the bedbugs (also commonly spelled "bed bugs") and eradicate them from the subject apartments. However, by the time the board knew about the bed bug problem, the bugs had spread to several more units, and so the problem became more costly and more widespread.
Legal Lesson
The problem might have been averted if the co-op board had updated both its proprietary lease and its house rules to cover many of the issues that have arisen since these documents were originally drafted. Both co-op and condo board directors should learn from this experience that they should be sitting down with their legal counsel to review all of the corporation’s operative documents and determine which areas need to be updated.
A good set of house rules will address many quality-of-life issues, such as noise, odors including cigarette smoke, maintaining insurance and, of course, bedbugs.
Equally important is to make sure that the cooperative’s proprietary lease or the condominium's governing documents gives the board the ability to enforce the house rules and to penalize those shareholders and unit-owners who violate them. If this co-op’s house rules had dealt with bedbugs, the original shareholders who were affected might have come forward much earlier and the problem would have been contained.
Richard Klein is a partner at the Law Offices of Richard Klein.
Photo by Carol Ott
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