New NYC Bedbug Law Requires Additional Disclosures

The City Council recently passed legislation requiring residential property owners to file the bedbug history for each of their properties electronically with HPD. It was signed into law on May 10 by Mayor de Blasio. In addition to filing this new electronic form with HPD, owners and managers will be required to post the same at a prominent place in the building or provide the form with each new or renewal lease. An HPD-approved form on preventing, detecting, and removing bedbugs must be also included with either the posting or lease distribution. Also, the law requires HPD to post a building’s most recent bedbug history form on its website.

The law itself takes effect 180 days from passage so that HPD has time to create and publish a standard electronic form, in addition to rules about enforcement. Failure to abide by this law will result in an HPD violation, but the violation class and any additional fines are yet to be determined.