Saturday, May 31, 2008

One More Thing

I forgot to mention, it sounds like the exterminators might not be able to come until THURSDAY. Yiked! Also - the head-tenant (my housemate) was telling me the real estate agents were trying to make him pay for the extermination but he refused and threatened to give notice and move out if they tried to make that happen. A few minutes later they had called him back and said the owner will pay for it. It's going to cost them about $450. I bet they're going to do it as cheaply as they can, ie: a shoddy job where the bedbugs will come back quickly.

Oh well, not really my concern. But the sooner I can stop sleeping under my desk the better. It's going to be a rough night.

The Document

To stop myself from going crazy at work, I started preparing the documentation I will need for when this goes to court. If I'm successful then something like this might be useful to other Australians who want to prove their case. I've only put in things from official sources, ie: the papers from universities and governments. They include:

- Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research "Bed Bugs Medical Ontomology Fact Sheet" describing the severity of their bites, and how they infest everything (not just the bed).
- Chessels v Wood (2004) where an Australian tenant took the owner to court over bedbugs and won. Half their rent was returned.
- Ludlow v Young (2004) where an American tenant took the owner to court over bedbugs and won. 45% of their rent was returned, this being calculated as time the premises were unfit for use (while sleeping).
- Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association "Code of Practice For the Control of Bed Bug Infestations in Australia" which describes how people should not attempt to do it themselves and causes lots of stress.
- Department of Consumer and Employment Protection "Renting a home in Western Australia - a tenant's guide" handbook for my own reference, details what's required to be a tenant, and how the owner is responsible for pest infestations. Also has court procedures.
- Residential Tenancies Act 1987 Sec 3, which is the actual legislation defining what's required to be classified as a tenant and have the protection of the legislation.
- Residential Tenancies Act 1987 Sec 42, which is the part of the legislation that requires the owner to provide the premises in "a reasonable state of cleanliness" and"maintain the premises in a reasonable state of repair", and "comply with all requirements in respect of buildings, health and safety under any other written law". I'm not sure about that last point, however I'm pretty sure an apartment full of blood sucking bugs isn't clean or in a reasonable state of repair.















I'd like to add a table of contents reference to the beginning that has the outline of the case I will refer to in court. I also need to attach my bed bugs sample, any documentation from a doctor if I go to see one, the pest controller's report, my rent receipts, and my photographs. Then I'll need to actually apply to take them to court.

My Room

I went home today to shower and change clothes. While I changed clothes I noticed bedbug skins in my chest of drawers (where all my clothes are). That's not a good sign. I checked my new clothes over really carefully this time. See the dots inside the green ring? One of them is a bit of fluff, but closest to the edges are 2 bedbug skins.
















I have had another bite appear on my chest. I took a photo.




















But I'm more concerned about my wrist. What I've realised is I've had this collection of bites on my wrist since I moved in, but I thought it was from my watch rubbing in that area. I noticed today that the spots are getting smaller for the first time in - ever - and after looking through my old photos I discovered that the photos pre-moving in my wrist is clear, but just a few weeks after moving in I had the worst marks on it. That should tell you something! I have evidence that the bedbugs were there before I moved in! That's really important to me.
















I got some clear tape and pressed it to my bed, catching a whole bunch of bedbugs in the process and sticking them in a clear plastic envelope. I watched them struggle for a few minutes before they stopped moving, I take it they've suffocated. Die!!!
















My room has the weirdest smell to it. I'd read that they give this sickly sweet smell off but that it's really rare except in massive infestations. Well - I've got one! Here, you can see how I've torn apart my room. I still haven't found appropriate bags to put things into though :(






























I collected my rent receipts but I couldn't find them all. I'll have to go to my parent's house and see if I can find some. I've also been thinking I should:
- Go to the Doctor and get a certificate to say my bites are from these bugs, now that I have the bugs to show him.
- I should also get a blood test, just to be sure. There are no known cases of bedbugs transferring blood viruses, but the infestation is so big, I don't want to be the first.
- Make sure the pest controller gives me a copy of his report.

I also told my housemate I will be taking the owner to court. He wasn't happy, but I explained I'm a sub-tenant and I have the right to do so and it doesn't involve him, and he agreed both that I was a sub-tenant and if I wanted to take them to court I should.

He had also never given me a receipt for my last rent payment over a week ago. I asked him again for it and he said tomorrow. I also asked for the details of the real estate agent, as I will have to contact them to get the owner's details so I can take them to court.

I've phoned and contacted a few real estate agents today and yesterday to arrange viewings of places I could move to. I guess I should list them to prove to the court I'm desperate to move:
- Domain 5757996.
- RealEstate 403314778
- RealEstate 403214787.
- RealEstate 402400981.
- Domain 5756380.

Prisoner

Yesterday afternoon my housemate called me to say that we might have an exterminator on Saturday or Wednesday. Well, Saturday is over, and Wednesday is another half week away. This is totally unacceptable to me! I'm sleeping under my desk at work. I'm at work day and night because I've got nowhere else to go! It's so stupid :( I feel like a prisoner!

I have to go home soon to wash and dry some clothes - clearly I can't just leave them hanging out, and not everything I own can be dried like that or it will shrink :( So I'm not sure what I will do. Maybe I will get them dry-cleaned and keep the receipts.

Today I went looking for xtra-large ziploc bags to hold my clothes. I couldn't find any at all. I will have to get some garbage bags and tie them tightly and seal up the top somehow.

I've been looking into my legal options. I looked into the legislation and I am legally a sub-tenant although my housemate (who is legally head-tenant) never registered me as one, so maybe he will get fined for that (unlikely). I can take the owner of the apartment to magistrate's court and sue for breach of contract. Although I don't have a written contract with the head-tenant, I have an oral "agreement" backed up with written evidence of rent receipts. That's specifically allowed in the legislation and in precedent.

So with my status mostly in the clear, I can sue, and what for? The legislation says the owner has to provide the premises in a reasonable state of cleanliness and repair. I don't think being full of blood-sucking bugs meets either of those conditions.

I was able to search some law engines and found a similar case in Australia, and a similar case in America, where the tenants realise they have bedbugs and took the owners to court and won. In those cases they claimed:
- 45% of their back-rent, as the place was unfit for sleeping, but could be used fairly safely at other times
- Moving costs (time off work, and car hire)

I think I will also sue them for
- 80% of rent from the time they were notified, because they've taken so long, and once I've realised what's happening there I don't want to do anything there. Even sitting on the couch there can result in bites, or eggs being transferred to my clothing. All I'm doing is showering and brushing my teeth there, and getting my clothes when I can.
- Any dry-cleaning costs I have, for stuff I can't wash myself in hot water or it might shrink.

I've printed out all the relevant legislation, the previous cases, some official information on bedbugs and the mental and physical stress they cause, and assembled it all into a binder while I prepare my case.

I now need to go home and get some "samples" of the bugs - no idea how I'm going to do that, maybe get them on sticky tape, and put them into some clear plastic sheet, and freeze them to death. I also need to get my rent receipts - the most recent one which my head-tenant never gave me (which is against the law, he had 3 days to give me one). But I will just ask and I'm sure he'll give it to me.

Oh yeah, when I told him yesterday I'm going to sue the owner, he's like "what for?" WHAT FOR? Dude I'm covered in f***ing bites, sleeping under my desk at work, the house is uninhabitable for me, and I've been in stress over the past few months thinking I'm going crazy and my body is a piece of s*** for falling apart only to discover it's because of the owner's negligence! What the f*** do you mean what for?

Thursday, May 29, 2008

That thing on my neck might be a hive from stress. I started feeling really nauseous and spent half an hour in the toilet with diarrhea.
I took photos of my legs yesterday morning when I realised the marks I'd had on my legs the past few months were due to bites.





























And as last night wore on, I found myself scratching more and more at my neck. I realise this is going to be another bite coming through. From what I've read they take a few days to become noticeable, partly because they inject you with something to numb the pain, and partly because it takes time for your body to react and mount a defense. Like I said, my housemate said he hasn't noticed any bites, but from what I've read he will most likely be getting them, just not noticing them.
















I slept on the floor at work last night, it was really uncomfortable. It hadn't been so bad the night before, but now it actually hurting my side. Right now I don't feel any pain though, I only felt it while sleeping - actually it woke me up! I had to turn over.

So at 5am, I went through what is quickly becoming a routine.
- Go home and grab clothes from the closet and put them in the bathroom.
- Drop my dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, shower.
- Check my clean clothes for bedbugs, put them on, carefully move my dirty clothes into my bedroom.
- Get back to work by 6am.

I took some more photos of my legs after my shower this morning. You can see these bites scab over for days or weeks, and itch... not as bad as my neck is itching right now though.
















Every now and again I catch myself and realise "This is terrible." I shouldn't have to deal with this. Then I get really nauseous thinking about everything that's been going on and how I'm practically homeless right now. I can't believe it!

Yesterday I told my family what I was going through, my mother and brother were outraged and said I should go stay with them. I said it's not a good idea, for one because it's more likely that I'll spread the bedbugs to them by accident, and I don't want to do that. But also they are half an hour away by taxi or two hours by bus, and I have to start work at 6am each day before the buses even start - so I'll be paying through the nose in taxi fare. They're only offering because they have to, there is actually no room for me there either, I'd have to be sleeping in their beds! So I don't consider that a workable solution at all, even temporarily.

Yesterday I looked up case law on the internet, and saw that in America a guy took his landlords to court, and they determined the penalty as 45% of his rent during the period of infestation. I think that seems reasonable for the period where I didn't know it was infested - however I think they are 100% responsible for my rent from when I have told them about it.

It's a rental company. You would think that as renting things is the core of their business, they would be aware of things like bedbugs, and check carefully before renting a unit. This assumes the bedbugs were there when my housemate moved in (which was a year or so before me). I can't say except that I've had to put up with them since I moved in.

Here's hoping I won the $40 million lotto last night, or something good happens like we get an exterminator for the weekend. God help them if they still have trouble contacting the owners.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Introduction

Hello,

I live in an apartment complex in Perth Australia. It's located in the CBD (central business district, right in the middle of the city). I pay a lot of money for rent, and the apartment itself is trendy and exclusive with good facilities (gym, pool, spa, sauna). With that said I don't earn a lot of money, I don't own anything amazing (not even a car), I just live close to work and want to make my life into what I want it to be.

And then yesterday the worst happened.

I've been living here for a few months (4 or 5) and at some point in time started having itchy marks on my legs. At first I thought it was my shoes, as I'd just bought new shoes a few weeks before and switched back to my old ones. The marks did not go away. I thought they were mosquitoes (the apartment is located near the river and so gets lots of them) so I closed my doors when things started to get dark outside. I stopped getting mosquitoes, but the marks remained. I thought it was a flare up of eczma I had when I was younger. I started putting on expensive lotions at night. The marks didn't go away.

They were annoying, and bled a lot, but I thought there was something wrong with me. Until yesterday.

On the 27th I was up late in bed when I saw a bug walking around on it. I flicked it out of the window and thought nothing of it, that maybe it had just crawled in from outside. I consider myself an animal lover and rescue bees from the pool, and things like that.

I went to sleep for a few hours and woke up again, turned on the light, and discovered 5 bugs sitting in the corners of a book I had sitting on my bed. I thought that was really strange and killed these ones, because obviously something odd was happening. I turned the light off.

Then in the morning I woke up and got out of bed and saw bugs all over the edge of the base. I killed a half dozen with a tissue, each one spurting a whole bunch of blood - my blood.

I knew something was up but I didn't know what. I pulled all my sheets off and put them in the corner ready to be washed that afternoon. I went to work and started doing some research on the net. I discovered I had bedbugs, the images of the bugs matched what I saw, then I saw pictures of peoples bites and realised - holy crap there is nothing wrong with me, I'm being fed on every night!

I still had hope. I went home that afternoon and put some of my clothes in the washer/dryer to get the process started, thinking it might still be nothing. Then I lifted my bed up against the wall to inspect it.

At first glance I breathed a sigh of relief - there was nothing on it. Then I lifted up the base against the wall. I saw nothing at first, then I noticed some dark patches in the corners. Then I looked closer and peeled away the backing a little, and discovered there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of bed bugs, large and small, their eggs, feces, and blood stains all through the corners of the base of the base.

I suddenly felt sick. I've never seen anything so horrific. To think I'd been laying in this bed, unable to sleep, covered in bites, thinking something was wrong with me, while paying exorbitant rent and thinking it was all worth it, only to realise I was living in a place full of bedbugs and no idea and that none of the blame was mine - I was shattered.

My housemate came home, his name is the one on the lease. I confronted him straight away - showed him the bugs, explained what I'd learned about them on the net, described my bites, and told him to contact the landlords ASAP and that I'd be sleeping at work, on the floor under my desk, until they're gone. He kept saying it was no big deal, while discreetly removing the house vacuum from my room (so it doesn't get infested) and closing the door (to keep them trapped inside). Riiiight.

And I did just that! I went to work, ate dinner, slept there, went home at 5am in the morning, had a shower, got some clothes from my cupboard, and went back to work. I felt so weird being in my room, with everything turned over, knowing there could be bedbugs in my clothes, not knowing what was going to be done to fix it. Knowing that I hadn't been home that night, and they'd be walking through the rest of the house looking for someone to eat.

I've been sitting at work all day, itching in my chair. I can't help but think they're still all over me - even though I don't see any. I took photos of all the bleeding red marks on my leg from where they've bitten me in the past few days.

My housemate called me at 2:32pm. The conversation is paraphrased below:

Housemate: I called the real estate agent and they are trying to get in contact with the owner to get permission to get an exterminator.
Me: When is this going to happen? It has to be right away.
Housemate: Well I'd hope it is today or tomorrow.
Me: They have to do it right away.
Housemate: Where did you sleep last night?
Me: At work under my desk.
Housemate: Why, you can sleep on the lounge, it's a fold-out.
Me: You don't understand, they'll be in that too, and if they're not they'll walk out of my room and find me and bite me there too. The owners are likely going to have to rip all that stuff apart to see if it has bedbugs in it. I'm covered in bites!
Housemate: Well I don't have any bites.
Me: Not everyone reacts to the bites. But I have so many bedbugs, I'm sure you have them too. I'll LOOK at the couch, but I'm not going to sleep on it. And I'm taking photos of my bites.
Housemate: Why are you taking photos for?
Me: So I can take action if the agents and owner don't follow through properly and quickly. They HAVE to. It's a MUST.

So this is my plan.

- Remind my housemate this is a serious problem, and I won't be sleeping in the house until it's fixed.
- Take photos and a diary online to document everything in case things take too long or go sour.
- It's Thursday. It's a long weekend. If the real estate agents haven't been able to contact the owners yet, and there's no pest controller scheduled to come in over the long weekend, I'll be putting flyers on the community noticeboard to let them know this isn't being taken seriously but the spread of bedbugs will affect their property.
- If by Tuesday there's still no action, I'll go to the local TV station current affairs show and lodge a complaint. Then it can be on the news.

I'm totally stuffed over this whole thing. I can't use my own place, the rent is paid up 3 more weeks in advance, I can't afford to move, there's nowhere TO move on such short notice, I can't sleep, I'm totally stressed, and nobody seems to be taking this seriously. I can't even have any friends over now, or they might infect their houses too. I'm totally trapped and things are spiraling out of control.