As If Bedbugs Weren’t Bad Enough…

(CN) - While exterminating a bedbug infestation, a Maryland property owner set off the sprinkler system and soaked a family's property, the tenant claims in court.

Jose Portillo says that he "noticed a bedbug infestation in his apartment" two months ago at Queens Manor Garden Apartments in Mt. Ranier, Md.

The property manager, Equity Management, allegedly arrived to fumigate the property more than two weeks after he called, but an employee activated the sprinkler system during the treatment.

Everything that was located in Portillo's main bedroom, which included furniture, documents, clothes and electronics, was soaked with dirty, black, smelly water that came out of the sprinkler system, according to the complaint in Princes George County Circuit Court.

Portillo says he never consented, but that Equity employees simply began throwing out the items it saturated with the smelly sprinkler water.

After an employee admitted to Portillo what had happened to his belongings during fumigation, Portillo allegedy requested that Equity clean the apartment and relocate him and his family in the meantime "because the wet carpet and its accompanying smell made the apartment unbearable."

"The defendant subsequently denied plaintiff's reasonable demands, thus plaintiff and his family were forced to sleep in a soaked and an offensive smelling apartment for over a month," according to the complaint.

"To add insult to injury the cleanup of the apartment was never completed in a workman like manner, evidence of which is mold began to appear in the master bedroom, Portillo adds. "Plaintiff has tried in good faith to resolve this matter but the defendant refuses to make him whole again.

"As of today, plaintiff continues to live with conditions managed by defendant that are substandard and constitute a threat to health of the occupants. These conditions include mold and infestation of bedbugs."

Portillo seeks damages for negligence, trespass and conversion.

He is represented by Terry Morris, with Morris Palerm, of Rockville, Md.

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