Bedbug disclosure bill clears state legislature

A bill requiring landlords to disclose a building’s bedbug history to prospective tenants passed in both the state Senate and Assembly yesterday and will become law once signed by Gov. David Paterson, the New York Times reported. The new regulations would stipulate that landlords include disclosure forms — about bedbugs either in the particular apartment in question or in any other apartment in the building — with their leases. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has seen bedbug complaints balloon in the city to almost 11,000 in 2009 from 537 in 2004. Still, some Republicans had argued against the measure because they said it would depreciate property values. [NYT]