New York State Amends 2024 Bed Bug Disclosure Law

New York’s bed bug disclosure law, Real Property Law § 235-j, has been amended to provide landlords and lessors additional time to comply with the law’s disclosure requirements and to limit the tenants and lessees entitled to receive written notice of a bed bug infestation.

Updates to the Law

The previous version of the law, which was passed in late-2024, required landlords and lessors with knowledge of a bed bug infestation in their residential premises to provide written notice to all tenants and lessees of the premises within 24 hours of learning of the infestation. Now, the law requires a landlord or lessor to provide written notice of a bed bug infestation to only those tenants and lessees of units immediately above, below, or adjacent to an infested unit, and to provide such notice within 72 hours of learning of the infestation. The revised law explicitly states that the notice to tenants and lessees shall not identify the infested unit or contain any personally identifying information about the tenant or lessee whose unit experienced the infestation. In addition, the revised law provides that, if there is an infestation in a common area of a residential rental premises, the landlord or lessor must, within 72 hours of having knowledge of the infestation, post a notice regarding the infestation in a conspicuous location that is accessible to all the tenants and lessees residing in the premises.

Housing Providers Impacted

This law applies to any housing provider that leases apartments, residential units, or homes in New York. The tenants and lessees entitled to receive notice from their landlord or lessor of a bed bug infestation include shareholders/proprietary lessees in cooperatives; rental building tenants; tenants in individual condominium units that are leased by the unit’s owner(s); and tenants in single or multi-family homes. The law does not require boards or managing agents of condominiums to provide notice of a bed bug infestation to unit owners, since the disclosure obligation is limited to “tenants and lessees” and condominium unit owners are not considered tenants or lessees.

If you have any questions regarding New York’s bed bug disclosure law, please feel free to contact us.