Students gripe about off-campus housing
The majority of Utah State University students live off campus in apartments, where they sometimes deal with problem after problem as the year progresses.
Some of the biggest complaints students have concerning their housing deal with the cleaning deposits they put down at the beginning of the year.
David Daines, a professor in the management and human resources department, teaches a class on business law.
“There is a Utah law and Logan city ordinance that governs the law of the return of rent deposits,” he said.
The law provides penalties for the wrongful withholding of that deposit, he said.
But, there are so many conditions to be met for students to get their deposits back at the end of the year, sometimes it’s near impossible, he said. The landlord will often raise the issue of how clean (or dirty) the student left the apartment, and it ends up being the student’s word versus the landlord’s word.
“It is well known that there are landlords who take rent deposits and plan on not giving them back,” Daines said. “Some landlords count that as extra rent.”
If the student does take them to small claims court or something of that nature, the decision ends up being a judgment call, not one based on clean evidence, he said.
Students should take video recordings inside their apartments before and after they move, in case of future problems, Daines said.
Marcus Winn, a junior in finance and economics, lives in an apartment managed by Coldwell Banker Realty. He said he’s had problems with everything from parking to carpet cleaning.
When he got there this semester, the carpet was filthy, he said. They came and cleaned it, then took the charges out of his deposit.
“It’s not supposed to be taken out of our deposit at the beginning of the year,” he said. “They should be cleaning the carpets anyway.”
Winn also said the customer service was bad, and managers basically acted like they “just didn’t care.”
A representative from Coldwell Banker Realty reported no problems with students this year.
One realty company, Wasatch Property Management, owns three student apartments.
Laura Erickson, the financial manager, said one of the main problems is students don’t read the entire contract before they sign it.
Wasatch Property Management gives out copies of the contract if asked, she said, but otherwise only lets students see it when they sign it.
Many off-campus housing units reported problems with parking.
Dana Johnson, a manager of Hillside Apartments, said, “Parking has gotten a lot more complicated in the past few years.”
Patty Walker, who owns buildings in the Greystone, Brentwood and Glenwood complexes, said, “Most of our complaints have to do with parking.”
Mountain View Properties, which owns numerous student-housing complexes, accounted for parking problems at the beginning of the year.
Maria Toledo, a secretary for Mountain View Properties, said most of the complaints have stopped over the last few weeks, as problems have begun to smooth themselves out.
Winn has had problems with parking, along with his carpet cleaning.
“I’m not even parking on my apartments’ property, because I haven’t gotten a permit yet,” he said.
He was told he would get the papers allowing him to park there, but hasn’t received them yet, Winn said.
Paul Jenkins, a senior in public relations, wonders where the fire lane and handicapped parking is in Village Apartments behind Kmart.
“It’s negligence on the landlord’s part,” he said. “Why are there only four parking spots per apartment when six people live in the apartment?”
Some residents are thinking about putting together a petition, Jenkins said.
Martha Carling, a junior in math education, has lived in Cresthill Apartments for two years now. She said one problem with her apartment is reaching the manager.
“He’s really hard to get ahold of when there’s a problem,” she said. “Most of the time, we have to go to his house.”
Although there are problems, she has a fairly nice apartment as far as apartments go, Carling said.
“Ours is a lot nicer than some others out there,” she said.
-emilieholmes@cc.usu.edu