A little background info before I actually get to the problem itself…
I signed up to go to uni and i was all set and ready to go. I signed no papers at all regarding rules and regulations of the dorms or any guidelines for anything other than the email you get when you sign up for which dorms you’re living in and the letter you get in the mail that has your roommate and building on it. That all the information I received about anything regarding my dorms.
Taking a step forward, I moved into the dorms on August 17th. I stayed the day, the night, and part of the next day and I decided it wasn’t for me at all. That is another story to tell but I came back home the 18th and stayed at home until the 25th. On the 25th my mom and I drove down to the school and moved all of my stuff out. Take in mind, I withdrew from all classes and all things related to the school on that Friday…the 22nd. I cancelled my financial aid, I cancelled my books, I cancelled my parking permit. Everything. No penalty because school didn’t start until that Monday the 25th. The 26th my mom and I drove down there yet again to fill out a form to cancel my stay at the dorms. I called and called and called many people on the Friday the 22nd about any penalties or any things that would come in my path to maybe not withdraw from school such as big penalties or fees that I would have to pay. Nobody said anything to me about fees, even when I asked if I would have to pay anything, multiple people that I talked to that day told me everything should be withdrawn, no fee, because it was before school started.
I went and filled the form out on the 26th and the lady told me that I had to pay 50% of the balance of the semester for my dorm fee after I had signed the papers. I wasn’t okay with this and she said she would have her boss call me later with more details regarding the fee for withdrawing from the dorms. She then called me and told me I had to pay 50% of the balance of the whole year. This being $6,800 for one year…i would be stuck with $3,450 out of pocket. I told her i didn’t have that kind of money and she told me she would talk to her boss and let me know the following day. She never did call me back. I haven’t heard or gotten a call from anyone about the whole situation. Until today. October 16th. Basically a month later i get an email saying that I have to pay $3,450 by October 20th.
Can this even be legal? How can they pin this on me without me even staying there and also leaving the dorms and withdrawing from school before the school year had even begun? Can someone please tell me something, anything that can help me get out of this? Nobody has an extra $3,450 laying around to toss at a school for staying in their dorm rooms for one night, let alone a 19 year old working a fast food job. Please someone help me. I don’t know what to do. My dad said he can call and yell but I don’t know if thats going to do any good…
It’s unfortunately legal and happens all the time. The school is going to say it is your responsibility to read all the fine print for everything you signed, and I guarantee you that somewhere at the bottom of a page you signed somewhere it states this scenario.
Since you’re technically not a student anymore I don’t know if going to the ombudsman’s office would help, but it would be worth a shot. At the very least, you could throw yourself on their mercy. Or not pay and hope they don’t come after you.
but the thing is, i don’t have $3,450 laying around. I have about $200 in my name. my parents barely make it living paycheck to paycheck, they can’t help either. what am i supposed to do?
Well first the school will send you the bill. Then it will go overdue. Then, after 180 days usually it goes to collections and people start calling and your credit score takes a nosedive (if you’re in the US that is, you call it uni which makes me think you’re not American). But in the end, the school will take the position that they really don’t care if you don’t have the money.
I would send out emails or letters to every address I could get my hands on, including the college newspaper and the President. Sometimes student councils have representatives on the board, include them. Anyone that will listen and the school might back down in the name of publicity.
Then if that didn’t work, I would offer a payment plan. Anything to keep it out of collections or default.
i live in america…i just don’t want to make a big stink but is calling them and getting rude with the gonna do it? if roles were reversed, they would be in my boat and not wanna pay either. how can they expect for me to pay…i just don’t understand.
Your options are to go quietly or make a stink. I don’t know really what else to tell you.
The nice thing about having students sign contracts and all that legal nonsense before they move in is that it puts them in the position where they don’t care if they were in your boat. Honestly, you really should read everything you sign, but who does?
You’re in the unfavorable position here. Your account will continue to stay on the books and will automatically go default and will automatically go to collections without anyone touching a thing. It’s not about fairness, the school is a well-oiled machine by this point and you won’t be the first person that has defaulted on something they owed. My friend had a library fine from his school from his undergrad days come back to haunt him years later.
The Goliath wins 99 times out of a 100 in situations like these.
Maybe try Kickstarter? I wish I had more options for you.
You need to get a copy of the housing contract for the dorm. It might be online. It will state in there the ways to be released from the contract and terminate it during the contract period.
My daughter’s university has its housing contract online on the Internet – it’s on the university website. It includes a provision that students can be released from their contract for a dorm without any financial penalty or obligations if the reason they moved out was withdrawal from the university. Students can also be released from the contract with no financial obligations if someone on a waiting list takes their place in the dorm, and for many other reasons.
I would imagine that your housing contract probably has similar provisions. If it does, you should draft an email to the person(s) in charge of housing and explain the situation, that there has been some mistake with the billing, and ask if they would please release you from the contract since you withdrew from the university before classes started, revise the bill to show nothing is owing, and send you confirmation this was done.
If the nice approach doesn’t get a response or the right response, then you draft a more demanding and threatening email to someone even higher up, saying you got nowhere with the other person, and that you will contact an attorney if they don’t promptly release you from the contract and cancel the bill. You may need to beef up your argument a bit if possible (e.g., point out that someone else took your place in the dorm room, if that is the case, so the university has its money for that space).
If the housing contract has the same provisions as my daughter’s – allowing release without penalty if the reason is withdrawal from the university – or any other provision that works in your favor, then you will eventually get this resolved.
Actually, it looks to me like you are trying to “screw the college over”, as you put it. They put a lot of money and effort into making sure there was a dorm room available for you, which we presume you agreed to and now, you are trying to renege on the deal without paying.
If you really haven’t signed anything of consequence, it might be a mildly interesting court case, though.
@justonedad the college isn’t getting screwed over because of one person moving out. they make way more money than i can even imagine. how is it that i can withdraw from everything else with no problem and no fees but when it comes to this, given it was told to me after the fact, oh you owe us $3,450 for a one night stay. as i stated before i do NOT have $3,450. i wouldn’t even know where to get that kind of money
You should have been released from the contract upon withdrawal. Like @mommyrocks said, contracts for housing usually don’t require you to pay anything for cancellation if the spot is taken by someone else.
“Should have” doesn’t mean anything. Everything hangs on what the housing contract states. You need to find that immediately.
IF the contract says you’re responsible for the amount, there’s no use telling them or us that you don’t have the money - the school doesn’t care about that at all. If you are responsible for the payment, you’ll have to arrange terms to fulfill your obligation.
@justonedad but this isn’t $10. This is $3,450 and I do not have this money. I really do NOT have it. And I don’t know what that leads to because there is nobody I know or some place I can go to just dig this money out of the ground. The decision to move out of the dorms was weighted on the fact if I would have a large bill as a result. I was told that if I withdrew before school started, I wouldn’t have to pay anything. I was told about the $3,450 after I had signed the papers and had already moved out. How would you feel as a 19 year old in my shoes? My parents don’t make sh-t, I make more than my mom does at her job. Does that tell you anything? My dad has cancer. Every free cent they have goes to him and his bills. Does it sound like I have anyone on my side to help me out here? No it doesn’t.
I naturally assumed that if someone from the housing office told her it was due that that individual would be familiar with whatever policy is in the housing agreement. I may be mistaken on that. If so, definitely track down a copy of the housing agreement you signed and see what it says. It could be your saving grace.
Again, you’re making pleas to our emotions. We understand that you don’t have the money. We get that your parents don’t have the money. Yes, it’s terribly unfair. But – you’re an adult, and signed a legal contract and are bound to the terms of that whether you like it or not.
If they actually demand that you pay the money that you legally owe them, you’re not going to get much sympathy from the people here, I’m afraid. It’s just a facet of “real life”.
I hope your father gets better soon and that you find a resolution to this dilemma.
I think you need to propose a compromise. First off realize that even though you stayed only 1 night, your stuff was there longer so that counts as occupancy. But 50% of a full yr seems harsh. Can you propose 50% of the first semester? If that is too much, come up with another number, but accept the fact that you do owe something.
Saying, “I don’t have the money” will do you no good. If you do in fact end up responsible for this amount, you need to HUMBLY tell the school, “Look, things are really tough right now. For the time being, I can pay you only $50 a month. Would that be OK for now? Then when I get a better job, I can pay you more.”
In July, my husband and I ordered some expensive software that we need for our business. We thought we would have the funds to pay for it. But we lost one big project, and then we had a family tragedy that took us away from the office. So we are on the hook for $4,000 that we don’t have right now. I called the company and explained the situation, and they’re letting us pay it out over time. That’s what adults do. The software company doesn’t care that we lost our nephew to suicide. They still expect to be paid!
I am fine with paying something. But the major fact of $3,450 is what is getting me. I can step into “real life” if thats what it takes and will step up to pay something but not that. I found a paper that states that i need to look at the cancellation policy and some other jabber but i never signed it?
The college incurred up-front costs.
It allocated a space for you that otherwise might have been given to another student.
So it’s reasonable to expect you to cover some portion of the semester’s housing costs.
The amount would depend on the terms and conditions of the school’s housing agreement.
Get a copy of that. There must be one. See what it says.
According to this agreement, if a new resident’s signed request for release from this agreement is received after August 12, 2015 and prior to check-in, the resident is liable for 2 weeks’ housing/facility cost. “After keys are issued, the University retains the right and discretion to release students from this Agreement upon documentation of valid grounds. Possible grounds for release include the following: withdrawal from classes …”
Near the end it refers to “appropriate … release fees, to a maximum of two weeks’ housing charges … and prorated charges through the official check-out date.”
I’m guessing that if you were a University of Maryland student, in this situation you’d be liable for about $1,000 (the semester costs pro-rated for 2 weeks, as a release fee, plus 1 day). You could offer to pay such an amount in several monthly installments, in exchange for an official release. They get a reasonable settlement and avoid the costs of trying to collect more money that you simply don’t have.
You can pay off even a very large amount of money - it just takes a lot of months. When the economy was really bad, it took me three years to pay off the cost of some medical testing my son needed. Yeah, it sucks, but that’s life. It doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 58.
