Bedbugs ‼️

[u/Salt-March8802]

I need some advice about bedbugs in a rented apartment in Finland.
We moved into our apartment in August. It’s quite old and was a bit dirty when we moved in. Recently, we discovered bedbugs after my husband got some pretty severe bites on his hand. At first, we thought it was an allergy.
The problem is that I have a 6-week-old newborn, and I really don’t feel safe staying here with my baby. 😟
My contract is fixed-term until next July. Can I terminate it early without paying a penalty because of the bedbug infestation? Who is responsible for arranging and paying for pest control?Has anyone dealt with this situation in Finland? I’d really appreciate any advice!

[u/Impossible_Boing]

Usually if the bedbugs are in multiple apartments -> housing company issue and if your apartment is only affected then it's on you (or landlord?)

Moving out now doesn't really solve the issue, you'll take the bedbugs with you and rest will move to other apartments as there won't be any food in their "current home"

Contact landlord and management company and discuss options. Also ask around from neighbours that do they have similar issues.

[u/Salt-March8802 → u/Impossible_Boing]

I have already informed the landlord he will pay for it. But I’m scared it might appear again considering the apartment situation. Can i terminate my lease after pest control?

[u/Impossible_Boing → u/Salt-March8802]

Bedbugs might appear in any apartment, that's part of living in apartment. Bedbugs might show up again, but then the terminator company will come back again usually free of charge.

I recommend sleeping regularly in the infested beds, my parents didn't went to sleep elsewhere and then bedbugs came back again twice because they went to look around for new food as their usual home was empty.

[u/Cadenca → u/Impossible_Boing]

Also, do the thing with the bed feet, you put bedbug traps on the feet of the bed so they don't crawl up to you at night. Treating a bedbug infestation essentially requires a human to sleep in the apartment as bait. There's a entire protocol to this. But yes, my sympathies it sucks ass

[u/kurav → u/Salt-March8802]

> Can i terminate my lease after pest control?

Unfortunately, not. By quick googling, it's not considered a grounds of termination of a rental contract. A fixed-term contract will run to the end of its term. Only if you contacted your landlord about the bedbug issue and they failed to start pest control operations it would give you grounds for early termination.

I can see you already contacted the landlord. This is the most important step, as it means there is no further liability on your part for failure to notify of the situtation.

Follow the instructions from your landlord / pest control company.

Best of luck. I can only imagine how hard enduring this must be with a small baby. Hope you can get rid of the problem ASAP and there is no re-infestation.

[u/No-Distribution542 → u/Salt-March8802]

Why would you terminate your contact ecause of an issue after said issue has been take care of?

[u/A_Very_Living_Me → u/Impossible_Boing]

You are not automatically liable if the bugs are only found in your apartment. This is assumed but it's wrong and the fear of liability is the main cause of bad infestations. Please do not contribute to this fear.

We're in the same situation as OP. We were committed to moving when we got them and couldn't back out. Even after moving and finding a few bugs have moved with our bed we were able to demonstrate we did not act negligently.

We got the bugs from a neighbor who failed to report them early, and our new housing company was unforgiving when we informed them of the bugs before our move.

We did everything we could to prevent moving them with us but still some escaped heat treatments and very thorough inspections on our bed that we took apart piece by piece.

Anyway new housing company blames us. Sends Anticimex and bills.

We ask advice from tenants advocacy and they advise us to dispute the bills saying that negligence needs to be proven.

We have a strong case in our favor because we can demonstrate we acted promptly and received professional treatments, and followed all the advice given to us by experts. We haven't seen any bugs beyond the few we found on our bed.

So we dispute the bill. It goes back and forth. Finally we send it to consumer advisory where it's in arbitration.

Point being even if they are found in only your apartment the liability isn't always yours. This is a stupid assumption and only causes people to try to fight them alone which then makes the problem very expensive very fast and then the tenant takes part of the liability for delaying the report.

Here's how I interpret the law in when it comes to bedbugs:

Report bugs immediately on first sight.
Report if you know the source and especially report if you don't know where they come from.
Report where exactly they are found (bedroom, bathroom, hallway).
Do not delay treatments and do not interfere with them.

If you were traveling and found a bedbug somewhere after you came home, it might be assumed you carried them but it doesn't prove you introduced them or acted negligently or carelessly if you report the sighting immediately.

You are liable if you delay reporting, or acted with negligence or carelessness when they came to your home (case in point: going to a friend's place you know has bedbugs is one actual case you can find online, tenant was not found acting careless but was partially liable because he delayed reporting: https://www.kuluttajariita.fi/paatokset/korvausvaatimus-ludetorjunnasta/

Document everything when it comes to bedbugs because if it becomes a dispute you need to be able to demonstrate you acted promptly and followed all instructions given by experts.

[u/kimsteep]

Sorry to hear bout the bugs, they fkn suck!
We went thru this 1,5 years ago just months before our due date. We had to pay everything ourself but the inspection of other appartments. We had the pest guy come twice to steam our bedroom (bedframe, mattress, walls and floor battens) they did not do that well of a job and we ended up borrowing a highpressure steamer and steamed the stuff ourselves a couple of times and did it thoroughly. For us the bugs lived in the bedframe and mattress so we disassembledthe frame to get to the source, after the bedframe and mattress was thoroughly steamed we put the traps on the beds feet. We also put double sided tape on the floor by the door. They are resiliant bastards but we eventually got rod of them within a couple months and they did not spread to any other room or appartment. I hope you’ll get them out of your home, the quicker u act the better chance you have that the colony hasn’t grown to big! All the best!