Anti-Tenant Bill

*** ANTI-TENANT BILL *** A-1578 BEDBUG “RESPONSIBILITY” BILL

Every person providing comments to your State Assembly persons must state: “We want the Bedbug “Responsibilty” Bill, A-1578, pulled so that the New Jersey Tenants Organization can meet with the sponsors and provide intelligent input to craft a Bill that is fair to both tenants and landlords. If not pulled, Vote “NO” on this Bill on Monday, March 9, 2015.” It is most troubling that our own Newark legislators are the sponsor and co-sponsor of this very unjust Bill. They need to be told “NJTO has serious objections, and I trust NJTO because their only purpose is to help tenants”. Specific problems include, but not limited to:

1. The current wording allows landlords to shift the financial responsibility of bedbug extermination over to the tenant simply by claiming that they gave 48-hour notice for extermination service, but “the tenant failed to respond or failed to allow access.” This is a wide-open invitation for rampant abuse very similar to landlords lying that tenants don’t allow access for repairs, which is routinely done when rent is withheld due to unaddressed repairs. Landlords want such language in the Bill deliberately to duplicate this tactic for bedbugs. Outrageous. NJTO wants to require the landlord to get a receipt from the tenant that the 48-hour notice was given.

2. The Bill says that eradication is complete if bedbugs don’t return in 50 days, and “If repeated eradications are necessary due to the tenant’s failure to properly maintain the dwelling, the costs of eradication may be charged to the tenant,…”. This is problematic because (a) the unit could be re-infected by bedbugs migrating from an adjacent unit, (b) bedbugs and their eggs can lie dormant in ventilation systems for over a year, and (c) It is nearly impossible to prove that a particular tenant caused the problem to begin with.

3. The Bill contains language throughout blaming tenants for bedbug infestation, and it makes no mention of the fact that the single biggest cause of bedbug infestation is bedbugs moving under the walls from unit to unit, either to seek out new victims or to escape from the application of chemicals by an exterminator. It is unjust to penalize the tenant in Unit #1 if the original infestation came from Unit #2, or from the landlords’ unit in a multi-family house.

4. The Bill allows landlords to deduct costs of eradication from the tenant’s security deposit when they move out, without any proof that the particular tenant caused the infestation

5. The Bill runs counter to established landlord-tenant case law in New Jersey, including the Warranty of Habitability (Marini v. Ireland, 1970), in which tenants pay rent, and the landlord uses the rent money, in part, to maintain the habitability of the dwelling, including getting rid of any infestation such as bedbugs.

CONTACT YOUR ASSEMBLY PERSONS, THIS BILL IS UP FOR VOTE ON MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

Legislative District 28 (western parts of Newark, plus a few other towns) Assemblyman Ralph R. Caputo 973-450-0484 [email protected] Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (Co-prime Sponsor) 973-926-4320 [email protected] Legislative District 29 (most of Newark) Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin 973-589-0713 [email protected] Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (Primary Sponsor) 973-624-7130 [email protected]