Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Frustration

OK.  I'm going to do something I promised myself I'd never do.  I'm going to rant, rave, complain and downright bitch about someone or something that I know has the address to this blog and knows who I am.
Tough.
I'm so tweaked by this that I just don't care at the moment.  I can't ensure that this will make any sense or be coherent to anyone.  I apologize, but I've got to get this off my chest.

It has been over a week and a half since we figured out that we have bedbugs and that Gak told our landlady.  Everything that I've done, has amounted to only pissing the damn things off.  It's only a matter of time before they move into the rest of the apartment.  And there is just about nothing I can do to fix even a small part of it.  This will require a profesional and probably well over $1500, I'm betting closer to $3000 because of the age and size of this building.
When Gak told our landlady last week about this, the first thing she said was that we brought them in. Pardon me, but WHAT??? What part of there was a problem on the 3rd floor in October don't you understand.  What part of you didn't even have the exterminator inspect our apartment, let alone spray.  What part of these are harder to kill than roaches and there's nothing between the two floors other than about a 12-18" air space.
Of course, she also said that we'd have to pay for the exterminator.  Uh, I don't think so.  I could see paying for it if it was our fault, like if it was an ant infestation because our kitchen was a health hazard to everyone in the county.  But this is a direct result of her hiring the cheapest and laziest contractors she can find.  I'm not even going to go into that whole rant.... that would take hours in and of itself.  (It took her just shy of 2 months to get the main light in the kitchen fixed.... this is just one small example....)
I mean, if she doesn't take care of this, eventually they will find their way into her office and make her and her employees lives an itching hell.  The only positive thing is that they don't transmit any diseases, just make you itch like crazy.  Well, that and so far they haven't appeared in the rest of the apartment.
I mean, sure, if you want to quibble about who's paying for the exterminator that's one thing, but this is a health hazard and you get it taken care of and then fight over it.  But no, it's up to us to call.  It's up to us to pay.  I'm sorry, I'm renting partially because I DON'T have a spare couple of thousand dollars lying around.  Oh, and yes, it does say in the lease "Comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety." under landlord obligations.  And yes, I would consider this a health issue.  Everything I've read says that the landlord (or landlady in our case) is responsible for pest control.  Gak's talked to a couple of other landlords he knows (from work) and they said they'd have taken care of it in an instant and that you have to take care of the whole building.
And, why would we have to pay for the exterminator when I'm pretty sure the upstairs people didn't have to back in the fall and we have them now because of their infestation and the half-assed job done by the exterminator (and our landlady, I blame her... if she'd hired a good and honest guy and not been cheap, she would have known and, hopefully, taken care of the whole damn thing back then).  And I doubt the job done in the fall was even half-assed.  I'm guessing that this isn't a "treat it once" kind of deal.  I'm about 99% sure that this will require many, many treatments over several months, if not a couple of years, to ensure that this has been taken care of and won't come back any time soon.

I'm so paranoid that I'm going to wake up one morning and Boo will be covered in bites.  I'm terrified of accidentally taking this into the daycare.  I'm terrified of taking this in to work.  I don't feel clean any more, I haven't in a week.  I'm kicking myself and realizing that I should probably just throw out about $60 or $80 of yarn that was either in my bedroom or that I brought into the house today to make a sweater and booties for my cousin Ben's son who was born last Saturday (and who's Bris we're going to this Saturday).  The whole thing makes me sick.  I'm just glad I haven't brought the new sheets or mattress pad cover into the house yet. I've got a call into Andy to see if he has another bed frame floating around in the barn that we can have as I just want to spray this one, repeatedly and often, haul it out of here and burn it to the ground.  Of course, I won't do anything with that until we've got everything else out of the apartment.

I really don't want to do it, but I'm thinking that I'll be taking some vacation ASAP and moving.  I'm not even sure if I care that it'll cost us more and be more inconvenient to us.  I don't want to move, but I don't know if we can stay here, if only for Boo.  I do know that when we do move, I'm going to be getting rid of a LOT of things, as much as I don't want to.  Not only are we going to have to move, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to get a new sofa (not going to risk it) and about 60% of a new wardrobe.  (Of course, I'm half hoping part of that will be because I'll have shrunk out of most of mine....)

So, yeah, I'm pissed.  I'm ticked.  I'm downright furious.  This post doesn't even begin to cover what I'm feeling.  But, it's after 9:30 and I've got one more day of work yet this week.  I am looking forward to the weekend, if only because we're going to my newest cousin's Bris and we get to see Michelle on Sunday.  Hopefully I'll have more happy things to write after this weekend and pictures to share.

Peace to all and may your landlords be reasonable and your problems small.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Report the landlord to the health board!
And to the whomever is in charge of landlord compliance

http://bedbugregistry.com/

"temps over 113 kill bed bugs"
"Orkin exterminators will use hot, dry steam to kill bed bugs in places you touch"

*hugs*

Jon said...

I have to agree with Flauta Mom, there are places to report landlord issues and as a renter you have rights. If your work offers it (I know EA and THQ did) use their employee legal service. It'll cost some money but it's waaaay cheaper then getting your own lawyer.

As a renter you have the power of the rent check. Simply tell her you won't pay the rent until you come to an agreement as to what needs to happen to fix this problem. If you've already given her April's rent check call the bank and put a stop on it before she cashes it.

Also you can try to enlist the help of your neighbors. This issue effects them as well as noted that the bugs most likely just "moved" from one floor to another with the previous extermination. If they don't want their apartment infested next they need to make their voices heard too.

In the end though I think your best bet is to move. It isn't worth the inconvenience of slow maintenance and certainly not worth the health of your family.

Addey said...

Thanks guys. Yes, we're trying to find a place now. (Thanks for the Craig's List listings) and we've got an exterminator coming over this morning for a quote. (Don't worry, I'm NOT going to pay for it.)
Right now I have no idea which company I'd ask about legal since as of today my business is sold, but for the next 60 days we'll still be on the old corporate's benefits... so confusing.