(a) Notwithstanding paragraph IV, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the tenant is responsible for the infestation if during the 6 months prior to the inception of the defendant's tenancy, and throughout the defendant's tenancy, there were no reports, to the landlord or a municipal health or housing authority, of the presence of bed bugs in the defendant's unit or the dwelling units of a multiple-unit building that are adjacent to or directly above or below the defendant's unit, or by previous tenants in a single-family home. For the purposes of this subparagraph, the defendant's own report to the landlord or a municipal health or housing authority shall not be considered a report.
(b) In evaluating which party is responsible for the infestation, the court shall consider the totality of the evidence, including but not limited to the following:
(1) The existence and extent of bed bugs in other units or common areas anywhere in the building prior to and during the tenant's tenancy;
(2) In which unit bed bugs were first discovered;
(3) Whether and to what extent, prior to the infestation that is the subject of the litigation, the landlord undertook remediation efforts in the tenant's unit and the units adjacent to and directly above and below the tenant's unit; and
(4) Whether the tenant had bed bugs in the dwelling unit in which he or she resided immediately prior to moving to the unit that is the subject of the litigation.
Source. 2013, 48:6, eff. Jan. 1, 2014.