As Scott Royce walked the halls of his apartment, bed bugs crawled up and down the walls, speckled his front door and crept around his to neighbor’s entryway.

These days, his grocery bags have been filled with pesticides. He sprayed along his door frame, in every crevice of his apartment, under his bed and in the folds of his mattress. But the chemical fumes were of little remedy.

“Bed bugs spread worse than a forest fire and they are harder to kill than cockroaches with how they reproduce,” he said. “It’s insane.”

Bed bugs – blood-sucking insects that multiply fast and can survive for a year without feeding – can be a tenants’ worst nightmare. Royce has called his landlord several times, and pest control companies have treated parts of the building, but as they continue to fester, he’s not sure what to do.

Oftentimes, many renters aren’t either, according to Steve Towers, an attorney for New Hampshire Legal Assistance.

Towers has watched tenants lose all their belongings due to these small bugs that look like an apple seed and multiply rapidly. He’s also seen others face eviction after infestations or have to foot the bill for extermination.

New Hampshire state law provides some protection against the pests – landlords are required to respond to notices of beg bugs within seven days. If they fail to do so, tenants can file a petition in court, which can lead to financial penalties until there is a response.

Royce and his wife are set to move into their first house in October. He’s worried they won’t have much to pack as moving day approaches.

“There is a strong possibility that everything we have will have to be thrown out or if we try to deal with it ourselves, the chances are a lot of this stuff we won’t be able to touch for a year,” he said. “The last thing we want is to bring bed bugs into our new home.”

‘Heartbreaking’

Jeanne Krukonias was eager to see the new blue chair her grandson purchased for his first apartment.

She’d helped him by co-signing the lease and putting down the first month’s rent and a security deposit. For three months, her grandson, Sebastian Berryman, lived in downtown Concord in a studio apartment, until a bed bug infestation caused him to clean out his apartment, throw it all in the trash and break his year-long lease.

“It’s been heartbreaking,” said Krukonias. “There was a chair he had just bought, told me about it. He wanted me to see it and I saw it go over into the dumpster because it was a fabric chair.”

When Berryman first noticed the bugs, he contacted his landlord for an exterminator to come. After a few scheduled treatments, the issue persisted.

Berryman wanted to get out. But that meant taking nothing with him.

“I lost 90 percent of my belongings,” he said. “It was very tragic. It was things I’ve had for years, childhood toys and things like that.”

The law does not require landlords to notify other tenants in a building of infestations.

Recently, Royce watched new neighbors move in on his floor, as he noticed bugs on the neighbor’s door across the hall.

In the meantime, Royce has taken it upon himself to notify neighbors with flyers in the hallway warning that bed bugs were in one apartment. They’ve since been taken down.

Berryman’s apartment is now listed for rent.

No local enforcement

New Hampshire state law spells out specific procedures for bed bug infestations. In multifamily housing units – like Berryman’s and Royce’s – it’s up to the landlord to resolve. In a single-family house, the onus falls on the tenant.

The initial bed bug complaints don’t fall within the purview of Concord’s code enforcement office, according to Jason Massicotte, a housing and building inspector with the city.

Tenants can seek recourse if a landlord is unresponsive by taking legal action.

In 2014, New Hampshire Legal Assistance and other housing advocates helped pass more tenant protections in state law. When a landlord fails to address a problem – like bed bugs or issues with utilities – the tenant can go to their local courthouse and file for an immediate remedy.

The order, once approved by a judge, requires the landlord to take “reasonable steps” to address the issue or face a fine for each day that passes.

Along with requiring a response, they must provide instructions 72 hours in advance of an extermination. Tenants also are required to comply and provide access to the apartment.

That doesn’t mean the extermination needs to be scheduled within seven days, though. Royce’s apartment was set to be treated on Aug. 21.

In Concord, the code enforcement office will reinforce these orders and the city attorney can follow up with additional penalties. Yet pest infestations are not a specific violation of the city’s code enforcement guidelines.

There are no records on file with the city for Berryman’s apartment. Concord employees did not return calls about records for Royce’s building.

Loss of possessions,and a bill

Berryman saved a handful of clothes after running them through the dryer and putting them in plastic bags.

“I did everything I could to quarantine and make sure that I was moving out of that apartment and not bringing any contaminants with me,” said Berryman. “That apartment was nearly empty. I basically did their job for them.”

Berryman won’t be reimbursed for any belongings lost with bed bugs. In fact, Blue Door Living, the property management company for Berryman’s building, sent him a bill for $910.

After inspecting other units in the building, they determined his was the only apartment with bugs and therefore said he was responsible for the issue.

“Overall I’m proud of our business’ prompt response time and professional response to this matter,” said Ryan Weiss, the owner of Blue Door Living. “A lot of management companies do not take pest control seriously but that is not our company and that is not this scenario.”

Towers sees similar disputes often.

Royce received a checklist to follow along with the notice that exterminators would come later this month.

Preparation included moving any beds in the apartment so that they do not touch any walls and removing any items stored under the bed. All clothes and bedding must be washed and run through the dryer on high heat for at least 30 minutes. Tenants and pets must leave the apartment during the treatment and not return for five hours.

Berryman received a similar set of guidelines from Blue Door Living, the property management company for his apartment. Instead, he chose to throw almost everything away and move out.

With rent at $1,050 a month for a studio – in a market where rentals are sparse and costs are high – Berryman said he couldn’t find a better deal when he moved in.

Krukonias was wary of the state of the apartment – with a hole in the cabinet under his sink and wallpaper peeling off the walls – but felt her grandson had few alternatives.

“I didn’t want him to take the apartment the first time, but he had no choice,” she said. “There was nothing available that was within his budget, and so he took it out of necessity.”

Earlier this month Berryman packed up his TV and remaining belongings and left the apartment empty. He was three months into a 12-month lease that he is now trying to break.

To him, Blue Door failed to hold up their end of the lease by not responding to maintenance complaints – like the bed bugs – with urgency.

The reality is, though, he’s not sure what else he’ll be able to find within his budget outside of Blue Door’s properties. He currently works at Walmart to take advantage of the company’s free tuition program so he can enroll at Southern New Hampshire University.

“Now upon leaving it’s going to be very challenging,” he said. “I feel that they take advantage of the fact that they’re the only game in town.”