The Jersey City Independent"

Jersey City Assemblywoman Joan Quigley’s bill to provide additional tools for landlords and tenants to fight bedbug infestations will be resurrected in Trenton on Monday afternoon, as the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee considers the legislation.

Quigley introduced the bill, which is co-sponsored by Newark Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, after it came to light that some Jersey City landlords were charging tenants hundreds of dollars to exterminate bedbug infestations that they hadn’t caused. The legislation passed the Assembly by a 74 to 3 vote in the last session, but the Senate never took up the bill.

The measure would require landlords to pay for exterminations in most cases, and would require tenants to sign off on eradication measures to rid apartment buildings of this pesky parasite.

“Renters should not have to live silently with bedbug infestations,” Quigley says in a statement. “Tenants who want to live in a clean and safe environment need the piece of mind that their landlord will work with them to ensure the sanctity of their home.”

The City Council passed similar legislation in Jersey City in 2008; if the statewide bill passes, Quigley has said the city’s ordinance would become moot.