When I transferred to Virginia Tech my sophomore year, I was looking for a place to live when I found Tech’s off-campus housing website.
I found this to be very useful when looking for apartments. I even went to the Virginia Tech Off-Campus Housing Fair, which allowed me to ask questions about the different housing communities. All in all, signing the lease and finding a place that fit my budget was fairly easy to do.
However, the move out and dealing with my leasing company was not.
I moved into OakBridge Apartments, right across the street from school for the 2009-2010 school year. This was my first apartment, so I did not know what to expect. They took my friend and I on a tour of the possible apartments we could rent. Everything was clean and tidy, and I thought the apartments were great.
We signed the lease and a piece of paper acknowledging there may still be traces of lead paint in the somewhat old apartments. I found this weird because I thought they painted the walls after each tenant leaves, or every couple of years. I was wondering why there would be lead paint still in the apartments — lead paint isn’t sold anymore.
To my surprise, the apartment was not very clean when we moved in. The bathtub handle had mold in it, the carpets smelled like urine (which our lessor had to steam-clean twice to get rid of the smell); the place was a mess.
I thought the leasing company was going to clean up the apartment before we moved in. According to the lease, the previous tenants were supposed to clean the apartment top to bottom upon move out, as well as get it steam-cleaned. If they are not cleaned properly, CMG Leasing goes back in and charges the exiting tenants for the cleaning.
OakBridge did give us a check sheet, where we could write anything down we noticed was not normal wear and tear. Still, they did not fix everything.
When we moved out, we cleaned for two days straight; we left it a lot cleaner than when we moved in. When we moved out, a couple weeks later we get a letter stating spurious charges, such as using a Magic Eraser on the wall (which we did not do) and $800 total for damages. They had taken pictures of walls, underneath the sink, and other random stuff. My parents were trying to figure out what they were actually taking pictures of, because they showed no damage.
It is partly my fault for not looking up the reviews for OakBridge Apartments. Had I done that, I would have known the place to be deceitful. But I was just very excited to finally have an apartment of my own as close as it was to campus.
When I did finally look on Apartmentratings.com, it was after I moved out. Nearly all 18 comments described how OakBridge tried to swindle more people out of their safety deposits and then charge them more money (some more than $900) for bogus charges. Many people, including myself, are considering legal action.
Since Tech has an off-campus housing website and office, it should be more aware of the liberties these leasing companies take with students.
The Off-Campus Housing Fair is a great idea, but it does not allow the students to review what other tenants thought about the place and the people running it. A review section added to the off-campus housing website would be very beneficial for people looking for places to live.
They would be able to read what actual students think, know what not to do, what to do and what to look for when seeking housing. It would have made things easier for me in the long run.
A version of this article appeared in the Nov 3 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Brittany, I agree 100%. The leasing companies out here PREY on students. It is downright wrong. It is criminal.
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that's fine and all, but it's not Tech's responsibility to pick and chose where students should live. People sign these leases without realizing what they are getting in to. Everything is clearly stated in that lease and it's the leasee's responsibility to know what to expect from their leaser.
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NOT TRUE! At places like Foxridge, they NEVER give you back your full security deposit (and pray on students ignornace). It' a hard lesson to learn....yes...but it's unjust.
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Some leasing companies, do give you a hard time at the end no matter what you have done right, there are some that do take advantage of students. I think VT should be more involved with the Leasing Companies, and to make sure the students are treated fairly. I have had similar problems with a certain leasing company around Blacksburg, and It would have been beneficial if there was a forum attached to the off-campus housing website, so i would know how to deal with them and what they could possibly do.
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Foxridge is awesome. Professionally managed and their deductions from the deposit were completely reasonable cleaning expenses. You can rarely, if ever, expect to get your full deposit back. Many apartment landlords automatically require deductions for carpet cleaning and such.
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All housing providers are required by law to disclose the fact that there may be lead-based paint in a dwelling built prior to 1978.
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For the record, I am a landlord, and it seems to me that all the information you seek is available to you already. The condition form that you fill out doesn't mean that they have to fix everything; it just ensures that both parties acknowledge any damage at the time of move in. A landlord is not required to patch every nail hole, fix every ding in the floor, etc. They only have to make sure the place is in overall acceptable, safe living condition. Lead-based paint forms come with every place built prior to 1978. Most people don't strip paint off the walls when they repaint, so a lot of old homes have it under the current coat. Also, you are allowed to be there during the final inspection, so if getting the deposit back is that important to you, go. Whenever I rented, I never counted on getting my security deposit back. Most landlords will charge for at least something (carpet cleaning is a big one).
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(continued) I'm not saying they weren't dishonest, but that's why the law provides the opportunity for you to be present. Also, sounds like the existence of apartment rating websites already covers your suggestion about reviews from previous tenants on the VT site. VT provides student legal services, and before I rented an apartment, we took the lease to them. All in all, there are problems with some landlords, but you need to exercise your rights under the law and take some initiative. Think of it this way: a landlord that deals with students probably has an equal number of horror stories about how the students screwed them over. The laws exist to protect both parties' interests, so use them.
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Tech doesn't need to help you with anything. Quit whining, grow up and do your own research.
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Welcome to the real world, Ms Ford.
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Welcome to the real world, Ms Ford.
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You just have to be a smarter renter. Do your research, ask as many questions as you can, utilities, internet, bills, noise, damages, ect. Before you sign anything. It takes a lot of time but it's well worth it for the best experience.
My past two apartments were negative experiences worse than yours but I've learned from it and it'll help after college as well esp when you go look for homes later on in life.
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To add though I do agree some sort of forum wouldn't hurt, I use apartmentratings.com and google ratings but some tech forum could always be created.
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The problem is that there is a set number of apartments to rent from and all of the ones that are "good" online have waiting lists a mile long. Other towns have regulations that help protect the renters when the housing is limited and Tech should be able to help too.
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