Ottawa man refuses bed bug treatment eight times, finally evicted

Christopher Francoeur was evicted from 415 MacLaren St. in Ottawa, after refusing to have his apartment in the infested 249-unit building treated for bed bugs.

The Ottawa Citizen reports that

According to a Landlord and Tenant Board ruling, the resident, Christopher Francoeur, refused to let anyone in to spray.

Francoeur claims he simply got home late from an appointment, but it does not explain why the city was turned away or locked out on seven previous occasions. The article claims the city

. . . visited Unit 1908 at least eight times. Each time, the bedbug warriors were turned away for different reasons — once because, they say, Francoeur, a 35-year-old convicted drug dealer, changed the locks.

Francoeur claims the public housing building had bed bugs before he moved in. However, this is no reason not to try and cooperate with the city’s plan to treat all the units. It is hard enough to get rid of bed bugs in a multi-unit building. If the landlord is willing to treat all units concurrently (and repeatedly, we hope), the other tenants have a better chance of getting rid of this problem.

The board ruled last month that Francoeur “substantially interfered with the reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex by the other tenants.”

We hear all of the time about such cases, where a tenant — for whatever reason — refuses treatment.

(And I love, by the way, how “reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex” translates to “trying to eliminate a blood-sucking parasite.”)

A NYC reader emailed today telling me that while she does not have bed bugs yet, she just heard someone in her building — a number of floors above her – is refusing treatment.

Even though laws may allow such tenants to be forced to cooperate with treatment or evicted, the process of enforcing them may take some time.






Sourced by nobugsonme on March 7, 2010 · 0 comments

in 415 MacLaren St., bed bugs, landlords vs. tenants, ottawa, public housing