One student back for the fall semester is warning others that long-term bedbug infestations can go unchecked in Halifax, even as unwitting new tenants move in.
After losing about $5,000 worth of belongings, Sara Lampinen says too much is at stake to allow lax pest control.
At the beginning of August, Lampinen arrived from Edmonton to sublet an apartment for seven months in Ocean Towers on Brunswick Street.
Just days after she moved in, she started getting bites.
The infestation was so bad that Lampinen, 23, could see bedbugs crawling around on her bed. She talked to building management and offered to show them her bites.
“They said, ‘No, no, we already know what they look like,’” she said.
“They said they did have bedbug problems before, but they weren’t in the unit that I was in. So they obviously knew that there were bedbug infestations within the apartment building.”
She only lasted three weeks in the apartment before giving up and moving out Friday. She said she threw out thousands of dollars worth of furniture and bedding, and her clothes needed to be specially laundered.
Managers at the building, which is owned by Toronto company CAPREIT, first arranged for Lampinen’s apartment to be sprayed, but she said the one-time treatment didn’t clear up the problem.
Bedbugs can live in walls and easily travel between apartments, and pest control experts often recommend treating a whole building or a whole section of a building rather than a single unit.
Saint Mary's student Sara Lampinen shows bed bug bites she suffered inside her Brunswick Street apartment. (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / Staff)
When Lampinen told them she was leaving, and the bugs were still there, “they didn’t seem to care at all,” she said.
A CAPREIT representative did not respond to a request for comment.
The renter who sublet Lampinen the apartment eventually admitted he knew there had been a bedbug problem in the building, she said. Building management also had a chance to warn her, she said; though she was subletting, she introduced herself ahead of time.
“I just want people to know because it’s … brutal, especially when I asked questions beforehand,” she said.
Bedbug-related complaints and financial losses are often handled on a case-by-case basis in Halifax.
Tenants have the option to complain to the Residential Tenancies Board about the state of their apartments, or go through small claims court to recoup financial losses, said Tracy Barron, spokeswoman for Service Nova Scotia.
It appears some financial issues can be resolved through the tenancies board. In at least one case in 2007, the board director ordered a landlord to pay a tenant $875 because of a bedbug infestation, a decision that automatically became an order of small claims court if it wasn’t appealed.
The tenant in that case had asked for retroactive rent rebates and money to cover laundering and damaged belongings. The landlord admitted the bugs had been present when the tenant moved in.
To monitor long-term infestations, it’s up to municipalities, not the province, to ensure landlords are meeting standards for residential buildings. Halifax bylaws require landlords to keep their units free of rodents and insects at all times.
Tenants can call 311 to report infestations and request inspections at their buildings, said an operator with the information service.