For this reason and many others, Student Legal Services is a unit on campus that exists to offer legal advice and counsel to most students free of charge, including when it comes to signing leases and other housing issues.
“Just signing the contract and putting faith in the landlord to take care of you is not a good idea,” Stacee Williams, staff attorney and interim director at Student Legal Services, said. “They’re in business to make money, so now is the time for the students to start taking responsibility for watching out for themselves.”
Funded by the student activity fee, SLS employs lawyers and law student interns to advise students on any legal matters.
During the mid and late fall, much of the work the office does centers around helping students sign leases on houses and apartments for the next school year.
“With lease analysis, students can bring their leases in before they sign and we’ll go over those lease contracts with them, as well as give advice and information on landlord and tenant law in Bloomington and in Indiana as well,” Williams said.
One resource Williams said she often points out for students is the housing and neighborhood development department for the City of Bloomington.
Files are kept on all rental properties, and students can go into City Hall to request past records on any property they might lease.
The records are for individual units, not entire complexes, so students can see records for their specific house or apartment unit before signing a lease.
“Leases are just a big contract, and for most of our student clients, this is the first major contract they will have entered into,” Williams said. “It’s good to get legal advice, to have a lawyer review that contract with you, regardless of what kind of contract it is, before you commit yourself to it.”
When a student comes in for a lease analysis meeting, Williams said it is good for a student to read their contract beforehand and come in with questions.
Abplanalp said it is helpful for students to submit relevant documents online for a meeting with SLS before coming to the office.
This allows a lawyer to look over the agreement or other aspects of the case, such as emails and photographs, to see if there is anything unusual.
Some cases Abplanalp sees deal with leases that require a guarantor, which is someone who signs a contract saying they will pay rent/expenses if the student fails to do so.
Guarantors are usually parents of students in most situations.
Sometimes a student signs a lease that requires a guarantor, but a student’s parents might refuse to be that person.
If this happens, under some contracts, the landlord can refuse to let tenants move in but still charge rent.
Abplanalp said SLS has won cases on this issue in the past, although one is currently in the court system without a decision yet.
Once a tenant signs a lease, there are some things Williams said she frequently advises students to do or things of which she attempts to make them aware.
For starters, she and Abplanalp both said tenants should attend with their landlord the initial joint inspection of the unit required by code within ten days of move-in to document the apartment or house’s current condition.
“That move-in is really important to establish a baseline, a record of the condition of the place in the beginning of the tenancy,” Williams said. “If a landlord isn’t willing to participate in that process, it comes back to professionalism and doing business according to the law, and I would just be wary of that.”
Williams said if a landlord does not attend the initial inspection, tenants should make a record themselves of the property’s condition.
She said it is important for students to take photographs and video of the space at the time of move-in to create a concrete record of the conditions, so a landlord does not claim the tenant damaged the space.
By law, landlords cannot use a tenant’s security deposit for normal wear and tear on a unit, but rather only on what exceeds damage from average use of the property, Williams said.
Although SLS provides help and representation, Williams said much of what the office does is directing students to resources and educating them on their rights.
“Mostly what we want tenants to get is that they need to watch out for themselves, and there are ways to do that,” Williams said. “If they have problems with landlords, they need to communicate those problems with the landlord, and see if they can get it fixed directly. If not, if they’ve communicated the complaints in writing, they have a record. Then they can come to see us and hopefully we can help resolve the situation.”
