<p>Has anyone every heard of this sort of payment schedule for a college apartment? </p>
<p>Private landlord, one building with 6 large apartments --my son’s prospective apartment is a 5BR first floor unit, furnished, as is typical in our college town. Landlord pays heat and hot water, tenant pays electric, phone, and internet.</p>
<p>We received the lease last night for the 2012-13 school year. They are expected to sign the lease in January and pay 2/12 ($1200 for my son’s share) of the annual rent at signing (1/12 as rent, 1/12 as security deposit).</p>
<p>The lease commences on June 5, 2012 and ends on May 31, 2012.</p>
<p>They then want, on June 5, 4/12 (or 1/3, $2400 for our share) of the annual rent in a lump sum. On September 15, another 4/12 (another 1/3, $2400) and finally on February 15, 3/12 ( $900) of the annual rent.</p>
<p>I have never seen a lease that doesn’t call for 1/12 of the annual rent paid on a monthly basis.</p>
<p>In addition, there is no provision in the lease about what happens if the building becomes uninhabitable, and given that we are paying out so much money in chunks ahead of time I am concerned. The lease is probably missing a bunch of other standard clauses … but that’s the one that stuck out to me and my husband.</p>
<p>Leases and payment schedules can be constructed anyway you want, as long as it is agreeable to both parties. I do a lot of rentals in small town Iowa, and we often do a lease with quarterly payments. A common one is for older people whose kids are paying the rent from out of town. You can ask to have a standard uninhabitable clause put in, I can’t imagine any landlord balking at that one. Remember what is standard in one local may not be in another.</p>
<p>cnp, when my son rented his first college apt in Boston we had to pay first/last/security/broker fee in January for a lease which began in September. I was appalled. I have not heard of also adding in the paying of the monthly rent. Obviously these things are very local but even in tight markets I’ve not heard of that. I would be leery of such a lease but that may be the standard in that area.</p>
<p>Well, as this is my second child in this college town, I know it is not “the standard” payment schedule for Ithaca. Signing early with deposits for a lease beginning in June or August is perfectly normal.</p>
<p>And of course, since I don’t know the four other parents and the kids just got this lease last night, it makes it a little hard to negotiate with the landlord. Since I have all of the kids’ emails address I may just send out a little note (with my son’s blessing of course) about having their parents look this over – since the parents are expected to sign the agreement also.</p>
<p>I pay my D’s rent quarterly. It makes things easier than remembering every month. Most kids at her school have well funded parents, I think that most don’t even think about it. I know that when her first quarterly payment was due and I didn’t pay until the due date instead of 6 weeks ahead of time, her roommate’s parent were distressed. Ummm, I had just paid the security deposit and it wasn’t due until June 1, I thought I had until June 1 to pay.</p>
<p>My S went to another school and he paid per month.</p>
<p>My S had to pay first month/last month/security deposit in Feb. for a lease that didn’t start until the following Aug. It was monthly after that, although they required auto payment from a checking account.</p>
<p>lololu is on the money there, that they can be legally constructed in a variety of ways.
My guess is that this LL has been stuck before by college age kids that either didn’t have monthly rent on time, or didn’t have all parties’ rent on time, and so now seeks more of an advance payment as a safeguard. Agree it’s uncommon, but seems legal to me, and any prospective tenant has the right to accept, negotiate, or decline the offering.
There may be no “uninhabitable home” clause because it is covered by state law, and there may be no need to write it in a contract. No harm in adding it, just to feel covered…
It is also common to require parents to serve as guarantors for the lease, because of the uncertainty of collecting rent/damages from a student.</p>
<p>If other parents are paying for their kids rent and if for some reason they don’t and your kid ie you are stuck for the extra, I think it is perfectly reasonable for all the parents involved to get in contact with each other and have a yep, we are signed up for this exchange.</p>
<p>What if four of the five parents are on board and one says, nope. The what? This is noT one of those cases where i would ask my son for permission to contact other parents, if I was signing a legal document with several other parties, i would want to at least contact them. I would ask for their emails and say at a minimum to the other guranterers, hey I am bobs dad and I understand the kids are all going in on an apartment together. As we are also signing the lease, just thought would share my contact information. </p>
<p>When my daughter got an apartment, we also were signing the lease, had to give info and the other mom and I shared contact information. Etc. We also agreed if something went wrong with apartment and landlord was unresponsive to girls issues, the she would be the one to follow thru as she lived an hour away.</p>
<p>Having a few email conversation with all parties included at the beginning of the process will help a lot if any issues pop up.</p>
<p>I’m sure it can be <em>legally</em> constructed in any way the landlord would like to construct it – but I’m just finding it unusual to have to shell out half the annual total before the kids even really move in. (Move in would be the end of August, although they could technically move in and have possession on June 5)</p>
<p>Some of that is because the lease begins in June, also for the landlord’s protection because it wouldn’t be unusual (or impossible) for college kids to break a lease and not pay for the last <em>three</em> months if it was a September start lease.</p>
<p>On TV I have seen several major cities in other countries where paying an entire year in advance is standard. They can ask for anything. It’s up to you.</p>
<p>“My guess is that this LL has been stuck before by college age kids that either didn’t have monthly rent on time, or didn’t have all parties’ rent on time, and so [on].”</p>
<p>I agree. DD’s lease was set up as the OP describes. Five girls, one large apartment. Good landlord. Responsible girls. The dad of one occupant decided to simplify things, and sent the landlord a check for the entire year! Yikes!</p>
<p>Speaking as a landlord (who avoids renting to students at all costs), I think this is a very reasonable approach when dealing with multiple tenants in a single apartment–think of the headache of hunting down 5 students for rent every month. (Also, compare this to the alternative of paying dorm charges for a full semester, in advance.) In addition to adding a standard clause regarding the apartment becoming uninhabitable, it would be smart to have the advance rent put into an escrow account and disbursed to the landlord on a monthly basis, so if the apartment does become uninhabitable, the advance rent would be returned without anyone having to retrieve money from a landlord who has just lost his source of income.</p>
<p>D1 also rented in Ithaca, with a roommate. We constructed in such a way that D1 was only responsible for her rent. The landlord couldn´t hold her responsible if her roommate didn´t pay. D1 had the first right to find a replacement roommate. If the landlord were to rent it out to someone else, that person would need to be a student at Cornell and a female. In exchange for that, I was willing to guarantee the payment. As it turned out, They had a peeping Tom. D1 and her roommate moved out with 1 month penalty. </p>
<p>There are a lot of rentals in Ithaca. D1 lived off campus for 2 years, we didn´t have to pay upfront, and I also wouldn´t be jointly responsible for other people´s rent either.</p>
<p>Oldfort, just curious how were you able to get the landlord to agree to those terms? My D is just getting ready to sign a lease in NC. They don’t seem to be very negotiable. This of course is an apartment complex. Any tips are always helpful as this is our first time.</p>
<p>lia_b, Both my S’s attend/ed big state u’s in NC. In both of their college towns there are apt. complexes where each roommate has an individual lease making them responsible for their part only. Those kinds of apts. are very popular and have grown to be more commonplace over the years in college towns. Has your D looked for a complex that has separate lease agreements?</p>
<p>My D and 3 amigas have decided to move off campus to an apartment in which each student has an individual lease. It’s a nice complex and they call the apartments townhomes though they are much more like a suite in the dorms: small bedrooms, minimal storage space, etc. It is quite close to campus and is on the same main drag where sororities/fraternities are located with university bus stops close at hand. That said, it is, to me, pretty darn pricey (no savings vs cost of dorm + will owe utilities) and the lease is the most restrictive one I have ever read (“reservation” fees upfront, yearlong lease, renewal in January for following school year, no “guaranteed” parking space, individual leases but landlord has to approve any sublets,many rules,etc). When D brought it home for me to read over her break, I was pretty appalled. BUT, it’s a university town and I’m sure every landlord has been stiffed at one time or another. The lease attempts to protect the landlord, I guess, but does not have a lot of tenant protection in it. When I mentioned that, my D started freaking. We forget that they really don’t have a clue in this type of interaction. It is a good set up for them as sophomores in their first year out of the dorm (U requires freshman to live on campus but does not really have housing available for most after freshman year) and she has really already agreed with her friends to do it even if the actual leases have not yet been signed. They are a great group of girls so we’ll just see how it goes. Not sure what they are planning for study abroad time as each of them will likely do so and it would be foolish to pay rent when not in town for a semester or so but I’ll wait and see how they handle that issue. I’ll definitely want my D to consider that and other options before renewing lease next January for the following school year.</p>
<p>I called up the landlord to discuss the lease, instead of having D1 negotiate it. I told the landlord that I would guarantee the rent payment if he agreed to my terms. For him to have a parent as a guarantor was worth quite a bit.</p>
<p>For our kids, they signed leases that they were only responsible for their share of the lease. There was never any problems, even when there were 4 tenants in the apartment (other than LL always wanted to deduct something for cleaning or replacing the carpet or something, even if they claimed they LOVED the kiddos & they were perfect tenants). Each tenant signed a lease, making responsible for THEIR portion of the rent only.</p>
<p>Most LLs are happy as long as they have assurance that rent will be paid–I’m sure parental guarantees are generally very good.</p>
<p>My daughter also rented in Ithaca. Her payment schedule was more conventional than what you’re talking about. Unlike Oldfort’s daughter, though, she and her roommates were jointly responsible for the rent, and they were responsible for finding a replacement roommate if someone moved out. (And in fact, when one of the tenants decided not to stay for a second year, the ones who remained did find a replacement roommate.) Everything worked out fine because the young people knew and trusted each other. It could have been an uncomfortable situation, though, if they did not. </p>
<p>I’m actually glad that the landlord would not have provided a replacement roommate because this was an apartment where not all of the students were of the same sex. My daughter would have been uncomfortable living with an unknown roommate supplied by the landlord if that person had been male.</p>