A Boston woman says she wants out of her lease because her landlord allegedly rented her an apartment knowing it had a bedbug infestation.
Heather Lutz told NBC10 Boston that she, her boyfriend and another roommate have been battling the bugs since moving in last month, which they plunked down $9,000 to do.
"This infestation was clearly happening before we moved in," Lutz said. "We feel that it should’ve been disclosed to us before we moved in because now all of our stuff is at risk of having bedbugs and we have to get rid of all of it."
Lutz said the property manager has exterminators coming and that they are packing up all their belongings to prepare for the fumigation.
Their neighbors, Aiden Budnick and Jackie Donnelly, say they also have bedbugs in their apartment — for the third time since they moved in to the same building in 2017.
They say the landlord hired inspectors.
"They said that the only way the situation would get fixed as if they cleared out the apartment and fumigated it and had to move everybody out for at least a month."
U.S. & World
Budnick and Donnelly say they’ve spent hundreds of dollars on cleaning costs and will have to spend thousands on storage fees.
However, they do admit to re-signing their lease.
"We also had to face the reality that we couldn’t afford to move," Donnelly said.
The landlord told NBC10 Boston he didn't realize there was a second bedbug issue until the last couple of days. He said he wants to work with the tenants to solve the issue.
