Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Bed bugs may be able to hide in every nook and cranny, but a new law aims to make a building's bed bug history open to potential tenants.
Under a new law signed by Gov. David Paterson Monday, landlords will now have to tell prospective renters or buyers whether the apartment they are looking at, or any others in the building, have been infested within the past year.
“Nothing is more horrifying than signing a lease after a lengthy apartment search only to discover that your new apartment is bedbug-infested," State Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal said in a statement announcing the signing.
"By requiring landlords to disclose infestations before the lease is signed, people will have a means of guarding themselves against exposure to this plague,” she said.
Bedbugs have been wreaking havoc across the city this summer, shutting down movie theaters, lingerie boutiques and clothing stores, even moving into the Empire State Building.
The city has also seen a whopping increase in the number of bed-bug related complaints in recent years, with 33,772 311 calls in 2009, up from 13,332 in 2006, according to the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
Last month, the City Council rolled out a $500,000 plan to try to control the infestation.
Rosenthal has also introduced a bill that will create a tax credit that victims can use to replace tainted items if their homes become infested, her statement said.
