Sponsored by:
Senator BRIAN P. STACK
District 33 (Hudson)
Senator SANDRA B. CUNNINGHAM
District 31 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Requires licensed exterminators to provide warranty after extermination of bedbugs at residential premises.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the extermination of bedbugs by certified pesticide applicators or certified pesticide operators and supplementing P.L.1971, c.176 (C.13:1F-1 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. For the purposes of this section, "bedbug" means an insect of the species "cimex lectularius," commonly referred to as a bedbug.
b. Every commercial pesticide applicator, licensed pursuant to the "Pesticide Control Act of 1971," P.L.1971, c.176 (C.13:1F-1 et seq.) and the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, who shall be contracted by the owner or tenant of a residential real property to eliminate the presence of bedbugs through extermination by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping, or by any other recognized and lawful pest-elimination methods, shall provide to the owner or tenant, as appropriate, a warranty that guarantees to the contracting party cost-free, repeated applications of pest-elimination methods for the infestation of bedbugs within the residential real property if the owner or tenant determines that the real property is still infested by bedbugs within 30 days of the completion of the extermination process performed by that commercial pesticide applicator.
c. The Commissioner of Environmental Protection shall promulgate rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), that shall be necessary to effectuate the warranty requirement of subsection b of this section.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require every commercial pesticide applicator licensed pursuant to the "Pesticide Control Act of 1971," P.L.1971, c.176 (C.13:1F-1 et seq.), who is contracted by the owner or tenant of a residential property to eliminate an infestation of bedbugs within the property through extermination by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping, or by any other recognized and lawful pest-elimination methods, to provide to that owner or tenant a warranty that guarantees cost-free, repeated applications of pest-elimination methods for the infestation of bedbugs within the residential property if the owner or tenant determines that the real property is still infested by bedbugs within 30 days following completion of the initial extermination process performed by that commercial pesticide applicator.
As the eradication of bedbugs may sometimes require multiple series of treatments with pesticides, which can be expensive to the owner or tenant of residential real property, it is the intent of the sponsor that there will be no additional cost to the owner or tenant when an initial treatment or series of treatments for a bedbug infestation by a licensed commercial pesticide applicator is unsuccessful and additional treatments are required.