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Bella7 Asked August 2019

AL...renters insurance?

How did I miss this when I helped my mother sign up to live at assisted living years ago ?


How many of your parents pay for renters insurance at their AL?


My mom’s personal belongings have bedbug chemical pesticides spray on everything in her room. Pictures, pictures in frames, her radio, her toaster, you name it has a film on it and today they tell me my mother is responsible for cleaning it and replacing damaged items.


I have since moved my mom to a new place.


This is such a sad experience

JoAnn29 Aug 2019
I remember your previous posts. Sure this probably was an answer but did you get the State involved? Private owned ALs are still inspected by the State. The Health Dept should be made aware of the problem. Even APS. Your state Ombudsman should be called.

My daughter has Renters insurance for her apt. It cost her under $200 a year. You may be able to find insurance for much less.

Sorry, I have never had to deal with this problem. I do know they are hard to get rid of. I think Moving Mom was a good decision.

Bella7 Aug 2019
Moved mom to a new AL. Had to buy her all new clothes, bedding/bed, recliner, shoes, bedbug covers for bed/pillows etc etc etc...All her pictures in frames were sprayed down covered in a dried on white film, trinkets, “her” last treasures, You know the yarn covered wire clothes hanger’s they used to cover to protect clothes from getting creases, she had numerous ones of those that she made and her mother, they were just saturated, I had to pitch them all sprayed. Her belongings now in storage at our house in a small pull behind trailer. We are still “fighting” with the “officials” over the damages...they’re blaming bug company.
Everyday it’s phone calls with arguing.
Trying to get information from the Bug company about what kind of chemicals were in the spray. I probably shouldn’t even been touching the stuff! They keep putting us off.

My question is how many people actually get renters insurance when they live at AL??
I know mom’s things that she had didn’t amount to much to most people but they were her last favorite things that she took to AL after selling her house, her car and downsizing drastically.

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BarbBrooklyn Aug 2019
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/landlord-responsibility-bed-bugs.html

Bella, read this from Nolo; I think you may need to get your lawyer involved.
Bella7 Aug 2019
Big Thank you Barb!

A wealth of information there, especially the subject, "Do Landlords Have to Disclose Bed Bug Problems?" !! This was my original question back on May 30!!! I'm still reading website...you brought light to my day and have lifted my heavy heart!
Bella7 Aug 2019
Does anyone else have “anything” to say about this situation? Any support to offer ?

Bella7 Aug 2019
Thank you freqflyer.
You’re the first person to say that to me today. I’ve been asking for inspection there for bedbugs since May. Every time I inquired they denied any presence of bugs and wanted me to keep quiet about it. I posted a while back about this problem here. It’s been a terrible last month but mostly for my mom who had to leave everything in her room. I had to buy her all new clothes and accessories. The assisted-living housekeeper told her she had to find somewhere to go until her room got cleaned up. I brought her home with me thinking she was safe but a bedbug found its way into OUR home. It’s been a hellish expensive nightmare !!!
My Moms last, dearest “possessions” she chose to take to AL is now drenched in chemicals. Piles of her clothing in trash bags, too many to count, have been washed twice at the laundry mat. They were sure to make sure they told me four different times it cost them $56 to wash the clothing. Now I have the task of sorting through all those clothes and hoping I don’t find another bug, try to clean the picture frames etc. etc., Even her toaster got sprayed! You could see where the bugs had been messing around in the outlets! I have no idea what I will say to mom when she asks where something is. Purses are drenched, important medical papers that she has saved for the past year that Medicaid always asked for are drenched. She had bought a $50 phone for her room which was still in a box and had planned to return it but it is now covered in chemicals with spots all over which I know they will not accept for return. There’s a CD player in a box I had bought for 50 bucks that she doesn’t want, it’s all spotted up too which I can’t return.
How do I know the stuff is even safe to touch? Her first great granddaughter she has that is one and a half years old has spots all over her pictures that she had all over her room. ☹️ All the pictures, the glass, the frame, has spots. Some of it leaked underneath the glass and it’s on the pictures itself!
The bigwig from corporate for the AL just looked at me like, oh well, too bad, she should’ve had renters insurance!
How does a person afford that if they’re only allowed 90 bucks a month ?
Sure wish I had paid better attention at the very beginning that day we signed up for this to be her HOME.

They expressed no compassion, or offered no help with clean up.

This whole thing makes me sick.

freqflyer Aug 2019
Bella7, renter insurance is one thing so many of us forget about when we place a love one into senior living. So glad you brought up this subject.

Come to think of it, I don't think my Dad had renter's insurance when he moved to senior living. Maybe he was still covered by his homeowner's insurance as he still had his house which we were getting ready to sell. I just can't recall.

So sorry to read that items your Mom had were damaged :(

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