Rabies Exposure: Landlord or Tenant Responsible for Medical Expenses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way should the landlord pay. The five of you getting rabies vaccines because a bat got into your house is completely over the top. I never heard of such a thing.

This. The health dept and animal control always say to get the shots but it’s overkill. You would know if you were. bitten. And even if bitten it doesn’t mean the bay was rabid. It just accidentally got in your house.
This is on you, sorry..

"Overkill" is a great word choice here. True galaxy brain thinking.

NP, $400/person to avoid a small chance of death seems like a good value to me, but feel free to make your own decisions if you are ever exposed to a bat.

Agreed. The chance of death isn't even really that small though. Yes, the likelihood of everyone getting bit is by a bat that happened to be rabid is very small. However, the likelihood of dying after getting bit by a rabid bat (without getting vaccinated) is virtually 100%. It's a no-brainer to go through the vaccinations if you have any uncertainty about whether you've been bitten by bat.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised the vaccine is that expensive, after insurance. Shoudn't insurance pick up the cost for such things? Needing the vaccine is very unlikely, but you wouldn't get it unless a doctor or public health person ordered.

[Anonymous]

If I was your landlord and you asked me to pay, I’d say sue me.

[Anonymous]

Well I gotta say I’ve learned something new today. Getting rabies shots appears to have been the reasonable thing to do.

I still wouldn’t pin this on the landlord though. As OP has said, it’s a good landlord. Shit happens.

[Anonymous]

What is your landlord like? Sounds like they fixed the issue right away which is good. If you have a good relationship maybe just say we had to all get these vaccines according to Health Department and after our insurance it cost us $2000 (show receipts). Since the bat came in through a hole in the roof that wasn’t fixed would you split the cost with us? I don’t know maybe I’m naive but I would split it with a tenant if they were decent tenants who took good care of the property (a ball didn’t get on the roof and make the hole or a tenant put up a satellite dish and made the hole type situation).

Do you have renters insurance? Could you read your policy? If you don’t have renters insurance I would get it.

[Anonymous]

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-01-06/beware-of-bats-after-3-recent-rabies-deaths-cdc-says

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Were you actually directed to get shots just because the bat was somewhat in the same vicinity? Seems a bit excessive if no one was bit or in danger? Did the bat even have rabies?

Standard protocol. If you find a bat in the house, the assumption of exposure is made. You likely won’t know about or see the bate. Death rate is basically 100% so the protocol makes sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way should the landlord pay. The five of you getting rabies vaccines because a bat got into your house is completely over the top. I never heard of such a thing.

Don’t spread the misinformation. They did they right thing. Yes, the landlord should consider sharing the cost

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the landlord knew about the hole and ignored it you'd have a case, but there's no evidence of that here

Is there a VA tenant-landlord law you can point me to that confirms your response?

Subject to other things that could be in your lease, or from your city, neither of which we have...

VA law: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/virginia-residential-landlord-and-tenant-act/

See section 55.1-1220 - Fit premises: "The landlord shall perform the duties imposed by subsection A in accordance with law; however, the landlord shall only be liable for the tenant's actual damages proximately caused by the landlord's failure to exercise ordinary care."

"Ordinary care" means what a reasonable human would do. A reasonable human does not proactively inspect houses for bat holes. They fix bat holes they become aware of quickly.

Totally disagree. Having an attic that is protected from vermin entering by flight or fight is ordinary care. What hellhole do you think the law is describing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way should the landlord pay. The five of you getting rabies vaccines because a bat got into your house is completely over the top. I never heard of such a thing.

This. The health dept and animal control always say to get the shots but it’s overkill. You would know if you were. bitten. And even if bitten it doesn’t mean the bay was rabid. It just accidentally got in your house.
This is on you, sorry..

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, Darwin Award winner in the making here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way should the landlord pay. The five of you getting rabies vaccines because a bat got into your house is completely over the top. I never heard of such a thing.

Not op but yes you do need to get vaccinated because it’s possible the bat bit you in your sleep and you didn’t realize it.

Try to trap the bat or get animal control to trap and call animal control to get it tested. That way you still need to get the first vaccine but if the test comes back negative, you can skip the rest of the shots in the series.

Genius. But how do you know there’s just one bat and you got it? Wow. Head exploded

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the vaccine is that expensive, after insurance. Shoudn't insurance pick up the cost for such things? Needing the vaccine is very unlikely, but you wouldn't get it unless a doctor or public health person ordered.

I bet Op went to the ER and got charged an ER rate by the insurance.

[Anonymous]

My parents just went through this. Woke up to a bat fluttering over them. The bat guy captured the bat but disposed of it for some unknown reason. So then they had to get the rabies series (and I think something else, too). In their area, about 10% of the bags have rabies so the health department said they needed to get the shots. Particularly because it was right over them when they were sleeping and they would not necessarily know if they got bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way should the landlord pay. The five of you getting rabies vaccines because a bat got into your house is completely over the top. I never heard of such a thing.

Not op but yes you do need to get vaccinated because it’s possible the bat bit you in your sleep and you didn’t realize it.

Try to trap the bat or get animal control to trap and call animal control to get it tested. That way you still need to get the first vaccine but if the test comes back negative, you can skip the rest of the shots in the series.

OP here, we weren’t able to capture the bat unfortunately. It would have spared us time and expense if we could have had it tested.

You guys have you seen these things? They live in colonies. No way to know you’ve had just one bat. 6 in 100 have rabies and that is 6 too many. VA man died in 1999 from a bat and 3 US deaths very recently from them too.

Also it doesn’t have to bite you or scratch you, could just be it’s saliva and open skin

Never understood people who build bat boxes. Sure, in the UK. But here?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the vaccine is that expensive, after insurance. Shoudn't insurance pick up the cost for such things? Needing the vaccine is very unlikely, but you wouldn't get it unless a doctor or public health person ordered.

I bet Op went to the ER and got charged an ER rate by the insurance.

My parents were advised by the health department to go to the ER because that is who has the first shot (and some other serum they needed). After that, they had appointments for the follow-up shots.