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Apartment Woes
Sarah Coakley
With the new school year approaching, many students have already signed leases, forked over a security deposit and put the housing arrangement situation on the back burner until August rolls around.
After signing the lease or contract, the lessee, or tenant, is legally bound to the terms stated in the document, said landlord Gregory Borg of Shady Lanes apartments.
The relationship between the landlord and the tenant, called tenancy, could go very smoothly. But for some students, the relationship could take a turn for the worse even before the move-in date.
Prior to moving into her apartment the Friday of welcome week, Sarah Anderson, a sophomore at MSU, paid $300 to have her apartment at Treehouse West cleaned. Some minor repairs were also to be made after the former lessees moved out.
“The carpet was replaced and (management) was going to clean up before we moved in, but there was a misunderstanding between the maintenance guys and the landlord because no one cleaned up,” Anderson said.
She said she moved in before her roommate, and found a huge mess, which she had to clean up.
“There were carpet shavings everywhere because they hadn’t vacuumed. The bathroom, refrigerator, stove and counters weren’t clean, along with two big bags, one with cigarette butts and the other with donuts and chips,” she said.
After explaining to her landlord what had happened and how this caused problems for her to move-in, her landlord offered the option of either maintenance, re-cleaning her apartment or giving her money back.
“My whole family was here with my stuff, so I couldn’t wait a few days for maintenance to clean the apartment,” she said. Both she and her roommate got their money back, but it was a “hassle” because it took so long to clean while trying to move in.
Another sophomore at MSU, Carly Allore, also had some problems with her house on Cedar Street for next year.
“We had enough girls to fill the rooms at the beginning, but for whatever reason three girls happened to drop out of the lease,” Allore said.
The landlord told Allore and her other roommates who already signed the lease and four parents that the rooms would not cost extra if they were not all filledbecause of separate room leasing.
“Here it is almost May when school is over, and we are working our butts off to find three more girls because our landlord said we now have to fill all of the rooms or we have to pay more,” she said.
Borg, who also owns apartments in Wyandotte, Garden City and Detroit, Mich., said the biggest problem he has with tenants is late rent.
“It is hard to take tenants to court because it is a long process, about 60 days, but sometimes it needs to be done,” Borg said. “Many people try to scam and not pay rent so by the time you take them to court they already moved.”
Borg also said he has never been taken to court by a tenant because he spells everything out in the lease, which his tenants sign.
Questions? Comments? Contact Sarah Coakley at coakley2@msu.edu
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