Insurers could soon be paying for your bed bugs
New York's bed bug victims might be in for some financial relief next year: A Brooklyn politician is about to introduce a bill forcing property insurers that do business in the state to offer policies against bed bugs infestations.
“Right now insurers don’t cover this because they say it’s some kind of routine maintenance, like roaches,” Allison Witty, the director of communications for State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, told BrickUnderground. “But it’s not okay to not cover this when people are being financially ruined.”
Hikind’s office has received numerous bed bug complaints from its constituents in Borough Park and Flatbush, Brooklyn, says Witty. When her own one-bedroom rental recently fell victim, the idea for the legislation was born.
“My apartment at 1650 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn was infested. We caught it from somebody else and we lost everything—we threw everything out,” says Witty, who has posted her story on Bedbugregistry.com.
“So far we’re out $7,000,” says Witty, now living with her mother.
The bill will be introduced next week but it won’t be brought to vote until January when the
state legislature goes back in session.
The proposed law is certain to meet stiff resistance from property insurers.
“It’s such a high risk that I don’t think companies would want to be responsible for that,” a representative of the Insurance Information Institute, an insurance industry trade industry, told BrickUnderground last fall. “If they did create it, I’m sure it would be expensive.”
Related posts:
Bed bug insurance? Apparently not.
All the Mayor's friends have bed bugs
When bed bugs move in down the hall
Bed bug disclosure bill sails through NYS legislature
New clues on how bed bugs spread through apartment buildings
All bed bug stories here.
