Bed bug treatment costs tenants $1,500-$5,000 with no landlord obligation in most states

In the majority of U.S. states, there is no explicit statute requiring landlords to pay for bed bug extermination. Only a handful of states (e.g., New York, Colorado, Florida, Illinois) have laws clearly assigning bed bug treatment costs to landlords. In every other state, tenants must rely on the vague 'implied warranty of habitability,' which requires hiring a lawyer and going to court to enforce -- something a tenant dealing with bed bugs can rarely afford. Heat treatment for a single apartment runs $1,500 to $5,000, and chemical treatments require multiple visits over weeks. Low-income tenants are forced to choose between paying for treatment they cannot afford, living with the infestation (which spreads to neighbors), or abandoning their belongings and moving -- often losing their security deposit in the process. The problem persists because state legislatures treat bed bugs as a tenant-vs-landlord contract dispute rather than a public health issue, and the pest control industry has no incentive to lobby for landlord mandates since tenants paying out of pocket are also customers.