Bedbug-Sniffing Dogs May Be a Real Estate Lawyer’s Best Friend
Inspections are routine before a new home purchase, but there’s a new insect in the ointment: bedbugs.
Enter Cruiser, a bedbug-sniffing dog who can detect the little critters in just minutes. Real estate lawyers are increasingly recommending buyers inspect properties for bedbugs before they close, the New York Times reports. Dogs like Cruiser “are the new and furry front line in an escalating and confounding domestic war,” the story says.
Cruiser inspected a property for a client of Manhattan real estate lawyer Lori Braverman. Luckily, no bedbugs were found. Braverman told the Times that, in just the last three months, she advised buyers in three deals to inspect for bedbugs.
The newspaper includes some statistics. Six years ago, New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development had 537 complaints about bedbugs in apartment buildings and 82 verified infestations. Last year the numbers had jumped to 11,000, bedbug complaints and 4,084 infestations.
Braverman is herself on the alert, checking out the minutes of co-op boards for any references to bedbugs. “It’s the deep, dark secret of co-ops and condos,” she told the Times.
