Teri Karush Rogers

As if renovating a New York City apartment isn’t stressful enough, some owners kick theirs off with a lawsuit against their board for failing to approve plans.

“People start these more often than you might think,” says C. Jaye Berger, a BrickTank expert and Manhattan real estate attorney.

No matter which storage facility you use, there are only two ways to be reasonably sure you won’t bring any six-legged hitchhikers back to your apartment: Seal every last thing in plastic to keep bed bugs out, or have your belongings gassed before bringing them back home.

“Seal everything in an airtight manner,”  Bedbugger.com advised us when we asked for tips. "The smallest bed bugs are 1/32 inch long. They can squeeze through a tiny gap." 

This weekend's NYT story about buying into a bed-bugged building (which we had something to do with) made us appreciate the fact that at least compared to renters, co-op and condo dwellers have the upper hand at squashing bed bug infestations:  They control their own buildings, so they are better equipped (if not necessarily better informed) to fight the bugs at the critical building-wide level--and to make sure it’s done right.

• Condo board at 260 Park Ave sues developer (NY Observer)
• Cell phone turns on stove in Brooklyn (Gothamist)
• Annoyed neighbors force closing of Beatrice Inn (NY Times)
• The new American dream: Renting (Wa