Off Campus Housing - What questions should we ask?

lookingforward
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:16:47 +0000

The first thing I would be concerned about, the main thing, under any circumstances, would be personal safety- who patrols that area and who responds to an emergency call? At my kid’s college, the school owns several additional buildings. It’s also a “safe” neighborhood, but the school’s security routinely drives the area to identify any loiterers, make sure main doors are closed and building security systems are operational. (City cops also patrol, but focus on the neigborhood, not individual buildings.) The kids can call campus security first, if they have a concern and it doesn’t need local police, rescue or fire. At some schools, campus security will do this for non-school owned buildings, if a number of their students live there and it’s within some specified distance from the campus.

The individual leases OP mentioned should mean that if one roommate leaves, the others have contracted only for their portion of the rent and related expenses.