When Jessica Stedman’s apartment rental lease was up in June, she cleaned the place and left, then waited for her landlord to return her deposit. It never came. Stedman said that the rental period passed without any problems, but her landlord kept her deposit and charged her for what she called “bogus repairs.”
This may sound like a familiar story to many college students who rent homes and apartments in the Eugene area. Stedman, a junior Spanish major, paid her extra charges because she felt she had no other option.
“I didn’t take any pictures of the place when I left, [so] I had no proof,” she said.
Due to the frequency with which problems between property managers and tenants arise, there are services on campus to help students know their rights and stop problems before they happen.
Nicole Miani is a lawyer for ASUO Legal Services, a free service to all University students which is located on the EMU’s third floor. Miani helps students recover their housing deposits, and she said the most common complaints she hears from students are about landlords not doing necessary repairs and students losing their deposits.
Miani said her most important piece of advice to students is to photograph all pre-existing damage, put every complaint or correspondence with the landlord in writing and to keep all copies.
“Courts don’t care how many times you’ve called,” she said. “All courts care about is documentation.”
Miani also recommended not signing a year lease if students are not planning on remaining in Eugene for the summer, because getting out of a lease early can be very costly. Instead, she said try and negotiate — “offer to pay an extra $25 or $50 a month for a ten-month lease instead of a year-long lease.”
Employees at the Rental Resources office on 16th Avenue and Oak Street gave no comment when questioned about how students can avoid housing disputes, but a representative of Woodside Property Management, who asked not to be named, offered students some advice on the subject.
The first thing he said students can do to avoid problems is to pay rent on time. He suggested that in a large house, students could elect a house manager with the responsibility of collecting rent from other household members.
He said students should always give adequate notice of vacating a residence to avoid problems for everyone and that they should make sure to clean up before they leave. Most importantly, however, he said he wishes students would understand that renting houses and apartments is a process with certain rules that need to be followed.
When it came to signing her new lease, Stedman was prepared. “I read the OSPIRG Renters’ Rights Handbook,” she said.
After reading her rights Stedman said she felt more secure about not being taken advantage of in the future.
“There are so many rights I didn’t know I had — everyone should know this stuff,” she said.
Jordan Bennett, a pre-business major, encountered problems with a rental company but stood her ground. “I signed a lease and paid my fees but two months later they started adding fees to my lease that I had already signed,” she said.
Bennett, however, knew her rights and refused to pay. “I let them know that what they were doing was wrong and they dropped the fees,” Bennett said. “They just wanted to scam me.”
Miani said students can avoid almost all conflicts by knowing their rights and recommended that all students get the Renters’ Rights Handbook. OSPIRG can be contacted at 346-4377.
“I get the feeling, sometimes landlords are counting on students not putting up a fight,” Miani said.