Disclosure

• Depending on your state, you may or may not have to reveal whether there are bedbugs in your rental unit to tenants. Generally, if a tenant asks about a bedbug problem, you have to answer truthfully because lying could give your tenant legal grounds for breaking the lease. You can't hold him responsible for any portion of the rent from his remaining lease term, and you may have to pay damages if he brings the matter to court.
  
  

Renting

• If the tenant does not ask you anything about bedbugs, you may or may not have to disclose infestation problems in the unit. If you remain silent and a tenant discovers the problem, he may report you to the housing authority and the result of an investigation varies on a case-by-case basis if your state laws don't address the issue of bedbugs. Some states, such as New York and Maine, don't allow you to rent units that you know to be infested by bedbugs.
  
  

Bedbug History

• Some states require you to notify your tenants even if you have solved the bedbug problem and even if the bedbug problem is in other units in the building. In New York City, you have to give new residential tenants one-year bedbug infestation history of your rental unit. In Maine, you have to tell your tenants the last date that your rental unit or adjacent units passed a bedbug infestation inspection.
  
  

Bedbugs in Adjacent Units

• Bedbugs spread from one unit to another in the same building. As such, problems in an adjacent unit can affect the tenants in your rental unit. Some states, such as Maine, require you to tell your tenants if the adjacent units are currently infested with bedbugs or being treated for bedbugs.
  
  

Control

• Whether you notify tenants of bedbug problems, they are likely to eventually discover them. Even if your state laws don't specifically address bedbugs, you may have to handle bedbug treatment costs. If you don't make a sincere attempt to eradicate bedbugs, your tenants may break their lease, deeming that your rental unit has become uninhabitable. Your tenants may also file a lawsuit against you.