Bedbugs spark battle between B.C. Housing and tenant

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      When Lisa Smith moved into the Leonard Shepherd Manor social-housing complex in Surrey in 2003, she probably never anticipated that she would end up in a legal war with B.C. Housing.

      It culminated in a July 29 B.C. Human Rights decision tossing out her human-rights complaints of discrimination on the basis of physical disability and failing to provide a service customarily available to the public.

      The conflict began when an inspection of her suite found evidence of bedbugs in December 2011. According to the ruling by tribunal member Norman Trerise, Smith told the inspection company, Care Pest Vancouver Ltd., that she had been bitten by the household pests. She followed up with an angry letter to B.C. Housing declaring that disabled tenants, including herself, did not have the strength to prepare their apartments for pest treatment.

      “What gives BC Housing the right to impose unpaid labour on anyone, let alone to impose a very large, thoroughly repulsive, highly physical work load on people who are physically disabled, and have stated that they are incapable of it?” Smith wrote.

      She also sent a notice signed by her physician saying that she couldn’t complete the tasks.

      The public-housing agency responded that the note was “illegible”, according to the decision. And when B.C. Housing staff visited her suite, she refused to speak with them.

      In January 2012, Care Pest returned to the suite, finding that there were no bedbugs. But by August of that year, there was fresh evidence of an infestation. This time, B.C. Housing agreed to help prepare Smith’s unit for treatment. But later, Smith claimed to have found a live bedbug, resulting in more treatments.

      Trerise stated in his decision that B.C. Housing initially “operated under the misapprehension that it had no obligation to assist Ms. Smith in preparing the Suite for bed bug treatment”.

      “That is not the case,” he pointed out. “Like any other landlord, where a service that it provides is compromised because of a physical disability of a tenant, there is an obligation to accommodate the disability to the point of undue hardship.”

      But because B.C. Housing provided assistance later, Trerise ruled that Smith “has no reasonable prospect” of proving that the landlord had discriminated against her.

      Comments

      7 Comments

      dahai

      Aug 7, 2013 at 5:33pm

      Most people know how to protect mattress, but don’t know how to protect sleeping people. Most people don’t know that mattress does not need any protection if sleeping people are protected. Google "Bed Sized Bed Bug Trap". The trap protects you when you sleep at trap center as inaccessible CO2 bait.
      More than 99% bed bug feeding time is at night. They can’t get blood when people at the trap center. Bed bugs must crawl every night without dormant until starve because they detect source of CO2 and blood.
      It was difficult to get rid of bed bugs because people suffer endless cycles of feeding, laying up to 300 eggs/bug, and killing. Any method requiring multiple treatments is poor because each new bite means many new eggs and trigs the endless cycles.
      It is easy to get rid of bed bugs now because bed sized trap breaks down the endless cycles and achieves no more bites forever at negligible daily effort. If you doubt such a high efficiency, sleep in a bathtub (too slippery to crawl) as first night no more bites and then compare functions of bed sized trap and bathtub.

      Gary K

      Aug 7, 2013 at 10:49pm

      First of all, you have to make your bed an Island. To do this, is easy. You can go and get yourself a role of Double Sided Carpet Tape and wrap the bed legs with it. The bugs will get stuck but make sure you move the bed away from the wall, so your bedding doesn't touch it. For a double once of protection, get Mattress Encasements. Another idea is get 4 Salmon or Tuna Fish can's and fill them with Bed Bug Powder. This stuff is made out of very finely crushed glass, so fin that it's in a powder form and when the bugs get into it, the stuff rips them apart. Again, move the bed away from the wall. Do this, and you should be fine. What also helps to keep them out of your cloths is Moth Balls. It won't kill them, just keeps them away as they don't like the smell.

      Gary K

      Aug 7, 2013 at 10:55pm

      One more idea is to put Petroleum Jelly on all the legs, bugs get stuck and once in a while, clean the stuff away with paper towel and put more Jelly. Us Vaseline or any other after market product.

      Alan Layton

      Aug 8, 2013 at 12:51pm

      Finding out you have bedbugs can be pretty traumatic, especially when you know that it may take several attempts to get rid of them. I can't help but feel sorry for Lisa Smith, regardless of the circumstances.

      NOBUGSONME

      Aug 8, 2013 at 1:16pm

      moth balls.....really.....that is so 3 years ago.

      The treatment should never be more harmful then the pest itself.

      Sue J.

      Aug 8, 2013 at 1:17pm

      Bedbugs nest in the WALLS just as much as the mattresses and frames. They TRAVEL through walls, along pipes, and under carpets. According to the health dept. They are suppose to SEAL surrounding apartments ( side by side and above and below) with expanding insulating FOAM and spray BEFORE the infested apartment is treated. Otherwise.. if they do it backwards , they HERD the bugs into the next unit.

      So it doesnt really matter what you do to your bed, the poison only last 20 days. If youre in a multi unit building, no matter what you do, they will come back in every twenty days. * THAT is quoted from THE best pest control experts in north America)

      John-Albert Eadie

      Aug 10, 2013 at 9:58pm

      I've battled and won against bedbugs, and hope to never have to do so again. Whatever, the battle against the stupid bureaucracy of BC Housing is more endless. They placed me wrongly, have refused to move me, and keep me emprisoned in a vile place. I've more to say, in time.