{"id":29171,"date":"2021-02-10T10:29:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29171"},"modified":"2021-02-10T10:53:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:53:30","slug":"landlord-responsibility-for-bed-bug-infestations-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29171","title":{"rendered":"Landlord responsibility for bed bug infestations sought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Certain Omaha landlords would be required to provide bed bug inspections and treatment under a bill considered Feb. 9 by the Urban Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Justin Wayne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB553, introduced by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne, would adopt the Bed Bug Detection and Treatment Act. The bill would require landlords of multi-unit dwellings in metropolitan class cities to have dwellings inspected and treated at the landlord\u2019s expense after a complaint \u2014 written or electronic \u2014 from a tenant. Omaha is currently the state\u2019s lone metropolitan class city.<\/p>\n

The bill also would prohibit such landlords from renting a dwelling that they know or suspect to contain bed bugs. Tenants would be required to promptly notify their landlord of a suspected infestation and landlords would have 96 hours to respond.<\/p>\n

Wayne said bed bugs are an emerging public health issue in Omaha schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s similar to kids who have experienced lice,\u201d Wayne said. \u201cThe difference between bed bugs and lice is, often times, lice is just confined to your home. Bed bugs can move around, particularly through apartment units, and spread quickly and exponentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Braun, president of the Nebraska State Pest Control Association, testified in support of the bill. He said bed bugs are not a personal problem, but a societal one, and that holding tenants responsible for bed bugs discourages reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of Nebraska must proactively ensure that our existing legal structures do not incentivize the further spread of bed bugs,\u201d Braun said. \u201cWhen landlords dispute liability and tenants lack affordable and effective pest control options, infestations are left untreated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynn Fisher, testifying on behalf of the Nebraska REALTORS Association and the Real Estate Owners and Managers Association of Lincoln, testified against LB553. The cost of inspection and treatment should be borne by tenants, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLandlords and property owners do not bring bed bugs into their property,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB553.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Certain Omaha landlords would be required to provide bed bug inspections and treatment under a bill considered Feb. 9 by the Urban Affairs Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-29171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-affairs","tag-sen-justin-wayne"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29178,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29171\/revisions\/29178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}