Am very glad that things are not quite as litigious here in Ontario - being a landlord is plenty challenging enough without having to worry about this sort of thing...
We're fortunate in that we have never had a tenant with bed bugs. Nor are we likely to, since we do a pre-emptive spray each time there is a turnover. I don't understand why more landlords don't do that - especially in rooming homes... so much cheaper and so much less aggravation than waiting until there is a problem.
Anyway .... hubby does treat bed bugs - usually on behalf of landlords, who are required to pay even when this is actually a totally ludicrous requirement. It makes some sense, I guess, in multi-unit properties and rooming houses... but in single family homes, a bedbug infestation really has nothing whatsoever to do with the landlord.
Even more aggravating is the fact that effective treatment of bedbugs requires that the people who live in the unit cooperate - and many don't.
No skin off their nose if the landlords have to pay for repeated treatments because they don't do - or stop doing - what is needed. And I suppose it's not surprising that people often don't want to let others know they have them - which, unfortunately, all too often contributes to more serious infestations, and contamination of more locations.
In any case, in the Maryland case, it sounds like the landlords were, in fact, remiss, in that they did not ensure the problem was properly dealt with - but more than $800k in damages seems a ~tad~ extreme!
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