Landlords are responsible for treating an apartment for bed bugs, but tenants are responsible for preparing the apartment, which can be a costly endeavor.
One Stuy Town couple’s nightmare
By Sabina Mollot
For the past two months, a Stuyvesant Town building, 8 Stuyvesant Oval, has been battling a bedbug infestation.
While the sighting of bed bugs is hardly a New York novelty, one of the residents in the buildings whose apartment is affected agreed to be interviewed by Town & Village in the hope that it would help prepare neighbors if they ever find themselves in the same situation.
For the resident, Don Reynolds, and his wife Nancy, the ordeal has had a price tag of over $9,000 in apartment treatment prep fees and other costs relating to the couple’s so far losing war on the blood-sucking invaders.
A spokesperson for CWCapital, when asked for comment on the situation, told T&V that bed bugs have actually been on the decline in Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village as a result of “aggressive” methods aimed at staying one step ahead of the problem.
“Any resident who is concerned about bedbugs should contact management immediately to arrange for an inspection,” the rep, Brian Moriarty, said. “Management follows citywide best practices and treats bedbugs aggressively. As a result, new bedbug cases at PCVST have decreased 11 percent compared to last year and 20 percent compared to 2013. If a resident does have bed bugs, we provide information on how to prepare the apartment for treatment, which in most cases can be done by residents themselves at a nominal expense. Some residents, however, choose to hire third-party vendors for this work.”