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Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Residence Teaching Unit: Legal Options for Tenants in Lubbock, Texas With Bedbug InfestationsBased on “Addressing Bed Bug Infestation in Lubbock Texas”A Report Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the Use of the City of Lubbock Department of Environmental Health

Jennifer S. Bard, J.D.,M.P.H., Ph.D.Alvin R. Allison Professor of Law,Director, Health Law ProgramTexas Tech University School of Law;Professor (adjunct) Texas Tech University School of Medicine

December 6, 2013Phoenix Arizona

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Introducing Law Students Students to Public Health Law Through a Bed Bug Scenario

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Learning Outcomes• After completing this unit students will

• 1. Be able to describe the sources of legal authority that apply to dispute between a landlord and tenant over a public health nuisance—specifically a bedbug infestation

• 2. Identify how provisions in a contract affect a tenant’s options when confronted with a public health nuisance

• 3. Differentiate between a statute which gives cities the power to require bed bug abatement and one that requires such abatement.

• 4. Describe the role of the judicial system in a dispute governed by a contract. 4

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Method of Assessment• Students will be asked to draft a letter to a client advising her

of her legal options (and obligations) in the face of a bed bug infestation in her rental apartment.

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Primary Source Packet-Available in Dropbox Folder• Texas Apartment Association Bed Bug Addendum,

http://austinskylinerealtors.com/forms/Sample-lease.pdf• Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 92.052 (West

Tex. Health & Safety Code, 341.012. ABATEMENT OF NUISANCE, • Chicago Bedbug Ordinance• NYC Bedbug Protocol• Texas City Attorney Association, Nuisance Abatement,

http://www.texascityattorneys.org/2010speakerpapers/NuisanceEnforcement.pdf

• Articles• Cindy George, Bedbugs Create Irritating Problem for Renter Houston

Chronicle (Feb. 13, 2013)• Texas Premises Liability Manual,

http://www.hsblaw.com/data/newsletters/Texas%20Premises%20Liability%20Manual.pdf

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Introductory Material

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About Bed Bugs• Bedbugs are tiny, wingless

insects[1] which feed on mammal blood and leave behind painful, itchy sores. After being absent in the United States for over 60 years, thanks to powerful pesticides, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius), have returned in force and are present in every state and

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[1] Bed Bugs, Ohio Dep’t of Health, http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprograms/dis/zoonoses/vbdp/bedbug.aspx (last updated Feb. 7, 2013).[2] Joint Statement on Bed Bug Control in the United States from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/publications/bed_bugs_cdc-epa_statement.htm (last updated May 8, 2013).[3] Managing Bed Bugs in the Workplace, Ohio Dep’t of Health, http://www.odh.ohio.gov/~/media/ODH/ASSETS/Files/dis/vector%20borne/bedbugworkfacility.ashx (last visited Oct. 28, 2013).

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About Lubbock

• Lubbock is a city of approximately 212,365 located in West Texas. Although the region is one of the top cotton growing areas in the country, there are areas in the city where people live in the kind of urban poverty seen in other cities of similar size. As the home of Texas Tech University, Lubbock also has a very transient population with a large number of apartment buildings and rental property.

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What Can be Done About Bed Bugs?

• , “If one apartment is infested, adjoining units (left side, right side, above and below) should be assumed to be infested unless shown otherwise through inspection or monitoring.”

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Scenario 1

• A friend of yours who is a graduate student comes to you with a problem. She recently moved into the Willow Creek apartment complex. After living there about a week she started waking up with blood on her sheets from red, itchy welts on her arms and legs. On closer inspection, she found tiny bugs, no bigger than an apple seed. After looking them up on Google, she recognized them as bed bugs and notified her landlord. They are not only willing to bring in an exterminator, they are insisting on doing so—at her expense. She wants to know if she really is responsible for the cost. She also wants to know if she can break her lease. You ask her to bring the lease and any other written information from her landlord and you will go over them

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Scenario Second Page

The next day she comes to see you with the Texas Apartment Association Bed Bug Addendum that she signed on moving in. After reading the addendum, what questions would you ask her? What laws apply to her situation?What aspects of Texas Law are favorable to her situation?What agencies can she go to for help?How would her situation be different if she were in Chicago? In New York?

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Information Package

• There are two major sources of law in the United States: which can be used to require a landlord to eradicate a bed bug outbreak: private law suits between landlords and tenants and inn keepers and guests as well as public actions taken against property owners by the City, court cases and statutes.

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Legal Overview

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Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment

• In Texas, a landlord who rents an apartment is promising that the apartment is habitable and fit for living for the length of the lease. Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 92.052 (West); see also Kamarath v. Bennett, 568 S.W.2d 658 (Tex. 1978).

•

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Torts

• A “Nuisance” action can also be brought under Tort theories of Negligence.

• In Texas, “nuisance” claims

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Public Nuisance

• Texas gives individual municipalities authority to address public nuisance issues within their own geographic borders,

• “The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) will refer public nuisance complaints to municipalities and counties with local health departments or code enforcement officials. DSHS will respond to public nuisance complaints in areas of the state that do not have a local health department or code enforcement officials.“http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/phs/publicnuis.aspx

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TAA Lease Addendum• “Believe me when I say that this new addition is not tenant friendly.”

Commenting on a case in Houston involving the addendum, Richard Alderman, associate dean of the University of Houston Law Center and director of UH's Center for Consumer Law noted that “a tenant has the right to leave or pay for treatment and sue for reimbursement in small claims court” but that “you very rarely can withhold rent in Texas.” The addendum tries to shift the burden onto the tenant by limiting the amount of time that a tenant has to report bed bug infestation after moving in and then further limiting the landlord’s responsibility to eradicate bed bugs once the tenant has agreed it was not infested at move-in.

• B. Conway, Bed Bugs, CONWAY L. FIRM (June 26, 2011), http://www.conwaylegalsolutions.com/?p=487.

• Cindy George, Bedbugs Create Irritating Situation for Renter, HOUSTON CHRON. (Feb. 16, 2013), http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Bedbugs-create-irritating-situation-for-renter-4283826.php.

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Texas Public Law• Whether or not a tenant has agreed to assume the cost of bed

bug eradication does not affect the City’s ability to issue citations. The two areas of law are unrelated. Given reasonable suspicion of infestation and the risk that if one apartment is infested others will be as well, a tenant cannot prevent the city from inspecting the premises any more than a landlord can.

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Health Department Has Power to Require Landlords to Abate Bed Bugs• 341.012. ABATEMENT OF NUISANCE, provides that:• (a) A person shall abate a public health nuisance existing in or

on a place the person possesses as soon as the person knows that the nuisance exists.

• (b) A local health authority who receives information and proof that a public health nuisance exists in the local health authority’s jurisdiction shall issue a written notice ordering the abatement of the nuisance to any person responsible for the nuisance. The local health authority shall at the same time send a copy of the notice to the local municipal, county, or district attorney.

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Why Apartment Dwellers Cannot Combat Bedbugs themselves• Many public health interventions exist because while it is

possible for an individual to address the problem, the consequences of their not doing so pose a considerable danger to the community. This is the rational for vaccination clinics and publically funded treatment for communicable diseases like TB. The risk posed to all citizens by bed bugs is of a similar nature, if not life threatening magnitude.

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Bed Bugs are a Problem of Poverty

• While legally, it is possible for the city to respond to a health hazard in a private home, for the most part this only happens when the inhabitants are under special protection, such as children and even more so foster children, or when the health hazard extends beyond the boundaries of the property to cause a risk to others. For example, if a private home owner did not fix a bust pipe on her property and allowed sewage to run into her neighbors’ homes, the City could intervene.

• One of the realities of this situation is that lack of money means lack of choices. So while an individual with the ability to pay for a clean and safe apartment would have a choice about whether to sign a lease with one landlord or another, someone without these resources has to take what he can get.

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Working With Other Regulatory Agencies• State Housing• Section 8

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HUD Less Supportive of Eradication

• HUD recently changed these rules in a way they perceive as shifting more of the burden to tenants. This perception is supported by the fact that the changes were brought by the “direct urging” of the National Multi Housing Council, an trade organization of property owners. The NMHC claimed that “noting that it created confusion about best management practices, hamstrung the efforts of owners and property managers to prevent infestations and failed to meaningfully address the financial issues to the owner and resident related to recurrent infestations”

• Id.• Id.

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Texas Law Specifically Identifies Bed Bugs as a Nuisance• Texas Revised Code Sec. 341.011. NUISANCE• Provides that “the presence of ectoparasites, including

bedbugs, lice, and mites, suspected to be disease carriers in a place in which sleeping accommodations are offered to the public” is a “public health nuisance.”

• TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE ANN. § 341.011(10) (West 2010).

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Chigago Bed Bug Statute• 4- 4-332 Bed bugs.• (a) It is the responsibility of every licensee under this title 4 to

provide pest control services when bed bugs are found on any licensed premises. The pest control services shall be conducted by a pest management professional as many times as necessary to

• totally eliminate the reported bed bug problem. Every licensee shall maintain a written record of the pest control measures performed by the pest management professional on the licensed premises and receipts and reports prepared by the pest management professional relating to those measures taken. The record shall be open to inspection by the departments of health, buildings, and business affairs and licensing.

• CHICAGO, ILL. MUNICIPAL CODE § 4-4-322 (2012), available at http://gallery.mailchimp.com/064a4eb35bd70aef6394f83eb/files/O2012_8254.pdf.

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A Plaintiff alleging a claim of constructive eviction must prove that:

• “ (1) the landlord intended that the tenant no longer be able to enjoy the premises, (2) the landlord acts in a manner that substantially interferes with the tenant’s right to enjoy and use the premises, (3) the landlord’s act permanently deprives the tenant of the use and enjoyment of the property, and (4) the tenant abandons the premises within a reasonable time after the act occurs.”

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Looking at the Box from All Angles—Other Areas for Solving Bed Bug Problems

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Using Social Media to Combat Bed Bugs

• Social Media and the internet already play an important role in alerting the public of motels and apartments which have experienced bed bug infestation. In addition to internet social media, the TV, radio and print media might be interested in reporting inspection results for bed bugs as they now do for restaurant inspections. This would create economic pressure on business which rely on the public making a choice to frequent their establishment or not. A good example of this in Lubbock is the Thursday, “Food for Thought” segment on local TV and in the newspaper.

• Texas Bed Bug Registry, BED BUG INFESTATION REP. & GOOGLE MAPS TRACKING THE BED BUGS EPIDEMIC, http://www.bedbugpestcontrol.com/category/bed-bugs-world/bed-bugs-united-states/bed-bugs-texas (last updated Oct. 25, 2013); see also BED BUG REGISTRY, http://www.bedbugregistry.com (last visited Oct. 25, 2013)

• Food for Thought, KCBD, http://www.kcbd.com/category/6128/food-for-thought (last updated Oct. 24, 2013). Other regions have similar programs. See Knoxville, Tenn, http://www.kcbd.com/category/6128/food-for-thought; Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.kcbd.com/category/6128/food-for-thought

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State Regulated Facilities• Texas, like Michigan, has specific jurisdiction over residences

and facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funding. This includes “nursing homes, hospice residences, hospitals, adult foster care, homes for the aged, child foster care, and child residential centers. Additionally, Michigan regulates agricultural labor camps, campgrounds, child care facilities.” All of these facilities require a state license which could be contingent on control of nuisance conditions like bed bugs.

• Id.

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