Checking a Unit for Bed Bugs Before You Move In

Bed bugs feed on people. In a unit that has been vacant for a few weeks, there is nothing to feed on, so the insects retreat into harbourage and become inactive. They do not die. Adults survive for months without a meal, and considerably longer in a cool room.

That produces the situation people walk into every May and July in the GTA. A clean, freshly painted, empty apartment that shows no visible sign of anything, because everything that would be visible is inside a wall void or under a baseboard waiting for a new occupant. The bites start two or three weeks after the boxes are unpacked, and by then it is very difficult to establish that the problem was there first.

Section 20(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act makes the landlord responsible for maintaining a rental unit in a good state of repair and fit for habitation, and section 20(2) says that applies even if the tenant knew about the problem before signing. Section 34 makes a tenant responsible for undue damage caused by their own wilful or negligent conduct.

In practice, disputes about a new tenancy come down to who introduced the infestation, and the record almost never exists. A dated inspection from before the move settles it. Without one, a tenant reporting bed bugs in month one is arguing from bites and a landlord is arguing from the fact that the last tenant never complained.

You will not usually get a thorough look during a fifteen minute showing, but a few things are worth checking and take under a minute each.

Look at the perimeter of the carpet or the gap where the baseboard meets the floor, particularly in bedrooms. Look at the underside of any furniture the unit comes with, especially bed frames, and at the seams of any mattress left behind. Look for small dark spots, roughly the size of a pen dot, which is faecal staining and does not wipe away cleanly.

Look for evidence of a recent treatment rather than evidence of insects. Fresh paint in one bedroom only, new baseboards in an older unit, a mattress in the hallway or the garbage area of the building, or interceptor cups under the legs of any remaining furniture. These say more than an absence of visible bugs does.

Ask directly whether the unit or the building has been treated in the last year. In Ontario a landlord is not obliged to volunteer it, but a direct question and the answer you get, in writing, is worth having.

For most moves it is not necessary. It becomes worth the cost in a few specific situations.

The building has a history. Multi-unit buildings with recurring infestations are the single strongest predictor, because a treated unit in an untreated building gets reinfested. If neighbours or online reviews mention it, that is the signal.

You are moving furniture that is expensive or difficult to replace, or moving into a furnished unit where the furniture is not yours and its history is unknown.

You are a landlord turning over a unit. Verifying a unit is clear before a new tenant arrives is the cheapest version of this problem. It prevents the dispute entirely, and it is a fraction of the cost of a treatment plus an abatement claim.

You are moving into a rooming house, a shared unit or student housing, where turnover is high and the units next door change occupants often.

A vacant one bedroom takes well under an hour. The unit does not need to be prepared, and an empty unit is actually straightforward to work because there is nothing in the way.

You get a written report listing the areas covered and any location the dog alerted on, dated. If it is clear, that document is what protects you later. If it is not, you have found out before signing rather than three weeks after moving in.