the death throes.

the countdown is on. the lease on my apartment ends in about five days and 4 hours. (and i have confirmed that it is illegal to not renew my rent-stabilized lease unless a non-renewal notice was sent no less than 90 days before termination of the lease so...there's that.

earlier this week i sent a letter to the management company - certified, return receipt requested - stating my intent to vacate on the 30th, and a bunch of other details. and tonight i called my super and told him my plan to leave and the situation with the bug-infested furniture. he was actually very apologetic, even sympathetic, and sounded like he'll be very cooperative with me in the next few days.

he offered to "spray my furniture" if i wanted to keep it, but i know the spray he plans to use is not bed-bug octane, and i know it does NOT do the trick, so i don't want to think it works and then take new bugs/eggs with me to my nice clean NEW apartment. so he said he'll treat the apartment after i leave with the furniture in it. mmm-hmmm.

so i will spend my whole weekend not just packing, but attempting to debug everything in my new $300 packtite heating unit. the thing has already paid for itself by preventing me from having to repurchase about $600 worth of books. there's soooo much to do, and i have to do it alone because i'm too afraid to let my friend help me at the risk of them bringing bugs home with them, so i really should stop blogging and get back to the packing.

you win some, you lose some.

despite my nightly routine mattress checks, i woke up the other day with two bites on my arm. i was furious. that night, i inspected my bed again, found nothing, and was very annoyed that something had clearly bitten me and i couldn't find it.

when i woke up the next morning, i found a dead bed bug and a smear of blood near the foot of the mattress. i wanted to cry. in fact, i did cry. this is an endless battle, and i'm losing it daily. i feel like sisyphus, doomed to an eternity of constant and pointless struggle.

so i took a photo of the bug and blood, and then collected the bug and added it to my list of captured specimens. i then checked my legs for further bites and found one on my foot. then i had to get ready for work.

when i got home that night, i ran into my neighbor who had a recent court date. i hadn't yet heard the results, so i stopped and asked him. he said it went really well, that he won his case, had his rent reduced to $450, and that exterminators were scheduled to come the next day. in his next breath, he told me that the rent invoice he'd received that day had a ton of legal fees listed on it -- the building management was now trying to charge him for the fees on the case that he just won. what the hell kind of sick logic is that?!

i told him that i still had no lease renewal offer and it seems the management is handing me my hat, but in the most passive manner possible.

so, no one is really winning. we all keep losing in different ways. but i definitely need to think about my legal options, and whether i have the time to exercize them.

you can so freakin' bite me!

Last night, duly exhausted from changing time zones, I went to bed without doing my routine bug checks.

This morning, I woke up to find two bites on my left wrist. Red itchy welts, staring right back at me.

Reality is finally setting in. It is now about 5 weeks until my lease expires, and I've heard nothing from the management about renewing (or not renewing). I think it's time to start looking for new apartment, and a new bed, and a new sofa, and a variety of other things I will need to dispose of and repurchase when I get to a new, bug-free environment.

I've been meaning to talk to my neighbor, too, to see how his day in court went. He felt rather certain he was going to win expenses for damages. I might have to take that route myself...

they lie in wait.

I was out of town for several days, and worried the whole time that I might infect the homes I was satying in. I was as careful as I could be without buying all new clothes upon arrival (like I did with a prior trip).

I came home a few nights ago and resumed my nightly bed checks. I found nothing...until tonight.

I do suspect that when I'm gone for a bit and the buggers have no one to feed on, they are slightly less active. When I return home, they sense it, and show up a couple days later.

It also reminds me that the 30 days has passed since my landlords received a violation for the bugs, and they've done nothing to follow up with me. In addition, my lease is up at the end of september and I haven't received a renewal offer yet. I'm not banking on them sending one.

But the same thing will happen to the next lucky duck that moves in. I think it should be illegal for a landlord to rent the unit to a new tenant if bedbugs have been confirmed and not yet eraticated in the unit. A loss of income on the unit will hurt more than the expense of proper extermination.

here we go again.

not like it ever stopped, but, it looks like we're in for another round.

last night i plucked two tiny bugs off my boxspring. tonight i plucked two more, also very tiny, as well as six very small discarded shells. this leads me to believe that another generation has hatched and is launching attack on me.

i still just wish i knew where the hell they were coming from.

and i wish i knew when there would be an end to this.

also, last night, i came home to a note under my door. my downstairs neighbor, the one who is being evicted for deducting extermination costs from his rent, shoved a note under everyone's door in an effort to rally the troops somehow. i guess i ought to send him an email. i'm ready to rally.

and...another one.

These nightly bed inspections sure are paying off! I found another bed bug tonight, nestled in and waiting to feast on me while I slept.

I wonder, though, when they do their traveling. They're not in the bed when I check in the morning, but they're here when I check at night. And where do they keep coming from that as I capture each one (and tape it to a piece of paper and date it for evidence), new ones continue to appear?

It's no way to live, I can say that much.

Warranty of Habitability

WARRANTY OF HABITABILITY

Taken from http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/attygenguide.html

Tenants are entitled to a livable, safe and sanitary apartment. Lease provisions inconsistent with this right are illegal. Failure to provide heat or hot water on a regular basis, or to rid an apartment of insect infestation are examples of a violation of this warranty. Public areas of the building are also covered by the warranty of habitability. The warranty of habitability also applies to cooperative apartments, but not to condominiums. Any uninhabitable condition caused by the tenant or persons under his direction or control does not constitute a breach of the warranty of habitability. In such a case, it is the responsibility of the tenant to remedy the condition. (Real Property Law §235-b)

If a landlord breaches the warranty, the tenant may sue for a rent reduction. The tenant may also withhold rent, but in response, the landlord may sue the tenant for nonpayment of rent. In such a case, the tenant may countersue for breach of the warranty.

Rent reductions may be ordered if a court finds that the landlord violated the warranty of habitability. The reduction is computed by subtracting from the actual rent the estimated value of the apartment without the essential services.

A landlord's liability for damages is limited when the failure to provide services is the result of a union-wide building workers' strike. However, a court may award damages to a tenant equal to a share of the landlord's net savings because of the strike. Landlords will be liable for lack of services caused by a strike when they have not made a good faith attempt, where practicable, to provide services.

In emergencies, tenants may make necessary repairs and deduct reasonable repair costs from the rent. For example, when a landlord has been notified that a door lock is broken and willfully neglects to repair it, the tenant may hire a locksmith and deduct the cost from the rent. Tenants should keep receipts for such repairs.