Occupancy lawsuit common practice in Bloomington

The city of Bloomington's lawsuit against four IU students and their landlord for violating occupancy restrictions is nothing new within the campus community. \nThe litigation naming graduate student Eric Spoonmore, senior Christine Little, senior Stephanie Bullock, alumnus Chris White and Haralovich Properties is part of an "ongoing enforcement," said Patty Mulvahill, an assistant city attorney who is handling the occupancy violation. \nMulvahill said it is "not uncommon" for students to be named as defendants in an over-occupancy lawsuit, although the city often pursues only the landlord in such cases. \nThe lawsuit filed April 22 alleges the student tenants violated city zoning restrictions because four students were living in the house at 204 S. Clark St. at the time of the city's inspection. \nMichael Huerta, a staff attorney for IU Student Legal Services who is representing the students free of charge, said a typical over-occupany lawsuit from the city takes about one-and-a-half to two years to settle out of court. \n"The landlord is supposed to post a notice of occupancy permit by the front door. This particular house did not have that posted," he said. "The city will want to know what the students did when the city found the house in violation. \nEvery case is different -- sometimes students are fined, sometimes not." \nThe city of Bloomington zoned the residence to maintain a maximum occupancy of three unrelated adults or one family, according to the zoning ordinance.\nMulvahill said city officials send a letter to the residents and the landlord once tenants are found to be in violation of occupancy restrictions. From there, they have 10 days to remedy the situation and notify the city of compliance.\nThe legal department sent such a letter March 29 to the students and to Peter Haralovich, the property owner. Haralovich was unavailable for comment at press time.\nBullock said the soonest her roommates could vacate the property during the school year was after the graduation ceremony in May.\n"When we got the letter from the city, we thought 'are they kidding?' We didn't think it made sense and we didn't know if they were serious," she said. "It was our house and we signed the lease to live there until August." \nMulvahill said her office settles many overoccupancy cases out of court with defendants paying a portion of the amount upfront. The city then will forgive a portion of the remaining settlement amount for each year the landlord complies with occupancy restrictions. \nAlthough the zoning laws restricting occupancy within the campus community were legislated several decades ago, Bloomington property owner and landlord Peter Dvorak sued the city in 1996 for violating the privileges and immunities clause of the Indiana constitution. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in Dvorak's favor but the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the city's right to enforce the zoning restriction in 2003.\n"I like the landlord and I love that house so much my little brother is living there next year," Bullock said. "Four people can live there comfortably and we have never had any discomfort -- other than the lawsuit. There are houses on campus with six or seven people living together, and it's not like we're housing 10 illegal immigrants or anything"