Bill Text: CT SB01049 | 2011 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Requiring Certain Property Owners To Provide Notice Of Bed Bug Infestations.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-02-25 - Public Hearing 03/02 [SB01049 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2011-SB01049-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 1049
January Session, 2011		LCO No. 3772
		*03772_______PH_*
Referred to Committee on Public Health
Introduced by:
(PH)

AN ACT REQUIRING CERTAIN PROPERTY OWNERS TO PROVIDE NOTICE OF BED BUG INFESTATIONS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2011) Prior to entering into an agreement for the sale or lease of a condominium unit, a unit owner, as defined in section 47-202 of the general statutes, shall provide the prospective buyer or lessor of such unit with a written notice, in a format prescribed by the Department of Public Health, that sets forth the unit's bed bug infestation history for the one-year period preceding the date of such agreement.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2011) Prior to entering into a rental agreement, a landlord shall provide a prospective tenant with a written notice, in a format prescribed by the Department of Public Health, that sets forth the dwelling unit's bed bug infestation history for the one-year period preceding the date of the rental agreement.

Sec. 3. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2011) (a) As used in this section:

(1) "Hotel" means any building regularly used and kept open as such for the feeding and lodging of guests where any person who conducts himself properly and who is able and ready to pay for such services is received if there are accommodations for such person and which derives the major portion of its operating receipts from the renting of rooms and the sale of food. "Hotel" shall include any apartment hotel wherein apartments are rented for fixed periods of time, furnished or unfurnished, while the keeper of such hotel supplies food to the occupants thereof, if required;

(2) "Lodging house" means any building or portion of a building, other than a hotel or apartment hotel, in which persons are lodged for hire with or without meals, including, but not limited to, any motel, motor court, motor inn, tourist court or similar accommodation, provided the terms "hotel", "apartment hotel" and "lodging house" shall not be construed to include: (A) Privately owned and operated convalescent homes, residential care homes, homes for the infirm, indigent or chronically ill; (B) religious or charitable homes for the aged, infirm, indigent or chronically ill; (C) privately owned and operated summer camps for children; (D) summer camps for children operated by religious or charitable organizations; (E) lodging accommodations at educational institutions; or (F) lodging accommodations at any facility operated by and in the name of any nonprofit charitable organization, provided the income from such lodging accommodations at such facility is not subject to federal income tax; and

(3) "Operator" means any person operating a hotel or lodging house in the state, including, but not limited to, the owner or proprietor of such premises, lessee, sublessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee or any other person otherwise operating such hotel or lodging house.

(b) Prior to making any room available to a prospective guest of a hotel or lodging house, the operator of any such hotel or lodging house shall provide the prospective guest with written or verbal notice that sets forth the hotel's or lodging house's bed bug infestation history for the one-year period preceding the date on which the guest makes an inquiry as to the availability of a room at such hotel or lodging house. If a prospective guest makes a room reservation at a hotel or lodging house in advance of the date that such guest is to occupy a room such hotel or lodging house and subsequent to the date the reservation is made there is a bed bug infestation at the hotel or lodging house, the operator of any such hotel or lodging house shall, not later than twenty-four hours after the operator discovers the infestation, provide written or verbal notice of the infestation to the guest who made the reservation. The written notice prescribed by this subsection shall be in a format prescribed by the Department of Public Health and may be transmitted by a hotel or lodging house by electronic mail. The operator of a hotel or lodging house may provide verbal notice of any such infestation when compliance with the provisions of this subsection through written notification is not possible or impractical, provided such verbal notice includes all information required pursuant to section 4 of this act.

Sec. 4. (NEW) (Effective from passage) On or before September 1, 2011, the Department of Public Health shall develop a form for the written notice required pursuant to sections 1 to 3, inclusive, of this act, that shall be used to document any bed bug infestation that occurs in a dwelling unit, as defined in section 47a-1 of the general statutes, a condominium unit, as described in section 47-202 of the general statutes, or a hotel or lodging house, as such terms are defined in section 3 of this act. The form of written notice developed by the department shall minimally require that the following information be documented with respect to any bed bug infestation: (1) The dates of any such infestation, (2) the extent to which the infestation affected the property, (3) methods used to eradicate the infestation, and (4) the date on which the infestation ceased to exist. The department shall require the dissemination of such form of written notice to certain persons as more particularly set forth in sections 1 to 3, inclusive, of this act. Upon written complaint from any person who alleges that he or she did not receive the written notice as provided for in sections 1 to 3, inclusive, of this act, the department shall investigate the allegation underlying the complaint and may order that written notice be provided in accordance with sections 1 to 3, inclusive, of this act.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2011	New section
Sec. 2	October 1, 2011	New section
Sec. 3	October 1, 2011	New section
Sec. 4	from passage	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To require certain property owners to provide notice of a bed bug infestation to prospective purchasers, tenants and guests of the property.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]