Real estate buyers in New Jersey and New York City and other locations are asking lawyers to place clauses in contracts guaranteeing there are no bed bugs in the residence. However, Jerry Feeney who writes a weekly column about real estate legal issues stated that such as clause won’t hold water. A seller may not have any knowledge about bed bugs in the unit that he is selling but he simply cannot guarantee there are no bed bugs in the building.

Feeney suggests that real estate buyers evaluate the building’s extermination program to see if management has a procedure in place for effectively dealing with all kinds of pests, including bed bugs. Hopefully, management has a plan.

Prospective buyers in New York City and elsewhere should ask if the building ever had a bed bug infestation and if so, did they immediately hire a bed bug pest control company and were the treatments successful. Also, you may want to hire a bed bug sniffing dog to check out the unit before signing a contract.