Legacy tenants readjust
When Holly Bogdan took over management of Legacy Apartments two months ago she found out that a large amount of the apartments were in violation of North Logan zoning laws.
“Clearly there was a miscommunication between management and tenants and we find ourselves in this situation and we’re really doing anything we can to keep people happy and I think most people are leaving happy,” Bogdan said. “I get that it’s frustrating.”
Bogdan speculates that more than 50 percent of residents of Legacy Apartments are Utah State University students.
In North Logan no more than four unrelated people can live in the same place together. Bogdan discovered that there was an issue with this particular law when the police came questioning the parking situation.
“They wanted an answer to the parking and I said that I’d look into it and that’s when I started to realize that there were more people in the apartments than should have been,” Bogdan said.
So Bogdan is working with tenants to comply with the zoning laws.
“People have been incredibly nice and I know there are people that are unhappy, but I think the ones that have come in and talked to me we’ve worked out a solution,” Bogdan said. “We are bending over backwards to accommodate people and to follow through on our end of the agreement.”
Some tenants, like sophomore physical education major Matthew May, have to decide whether to split up their apartment into multiple apartments, or simply move out.
“Right now, as for me and my apartment, some of us are deciding whether or not we are going to stay or we are going to leave,” May said. “We are deciding whether to move out or just change our contracts and actually make them legal. We haven’t quite decided because there is quite a few of us and most of us that are under violation are all friends.”
The current leases, which pre-date Bogdan’s management, are not valid if they are in violation of the zoning laws.
“There are the occupancy laws in the zoning and that trumps our lease,” Bodgan said. “If the lease is signed incorrectly by us it’s voided because it doesn’t follow the occupancy laws.”
“The management has been pretty good now. Since the old management left they are willing to drop our payment so that they are closer to what we are paying now. It’s a little bit more but not much more so they are compensating us a lot for the mistake that they’ve made,” May said.
Bogdan also had to address the parking situation.
“We are just re-distributing parking passes in more even, two for a two bedroom, three for a three bedroom,” Bogdan said.