Landlord Bryan Kurtz works to get a fifth apartment ready for occupancy at his rental property in Red Bank. Earlier this year, bedbugs infested mattresses at the five-unit building he owns.A local landlord is seeking compensation from the former owners of his Red Bank rental property after discovering it came with some creepy, bloodsucking tenants: bedbugs.
Bryan Kurtz of Chattanooga said he wants to be reimbursed for the $2,400 he paid Terminix to rid the apartment building of a bedbug infestation in November, one month after he acquired the property.
Kurtz said that when his tenants — who had been in the same property under the previous landlord — complained about bedbugs, he discovered they all were aware of a bedbug problem in June.
The previous owner didn’t mention the problem during the sale or help tenants get rid of the bedbugs when they were discovered, Kurtz said.
One tenant, a 34-year-old woman who did not want to be named, said her neighbors helped her throw away her couch after she found a “ton” of bedbugs in it.