<p>My kid lives in a dilapidated old house and has turf wars with crack dens in the area. He traded a beautiful, new two bedroom apartment on campus on the lake for that.</p>
<p>Reading through this thread makes me glad that D just went through the housing lottery for next year and will stay on campus. I think she will do so for her last year, too. This was one of our concerns when we were looking at schools in Boston. Some of them didnt guarantee housing for 4 years. Both H and I attended schools in Boston way back when, and I remember how bad some of the apartments were that I looked at for grad school.</p>
<p>My spouse runs a property management company. He does not rent to very many students. If a student does not have credit and income to cover the rent he asks for a co-signer. After 25+ yrs of dealing with tenants and roommates he refuses to cosign for any of our children. Many people are not aware that when they co-sign they are taking on the entire rent not just the portion paid by their child. My husband is not willing to assume the risk of one or more of the roommates moving out or not paying rent or doing damage to a unit. He has seen first hand what an apartment can look like after young people move out. Granted leaving a damaged unit is not just a problem with younger tenants. Many of us talk about the condition of our kids rooms or dorm rooms. Imagine 4 or 5 or 6 of them in an apartment. I have seen apartments where the kitchens is full of dirty dishes, rotting food in the garbage and showers and toilets that have not been cleaned. When you cosign I would make sure you know something about the other roommates. I don’t think my son is mature enough to handle all that renting and maintaining an apartment or house requires. He will be back in a dorm or a university owned apartment next year. He actually doesn’t mind. Though his school is in an depressed economic area and he could live off campus much cheaper.
The landlord is asking for the information to best protect his interests. He wants to be assured that the people he rents to are going to be able to pay the rent. Think about it if you had to leave the area and needed to rent out your home you would want to make the best choice of tenant.</p>
<p>mom60 good post. Lots to consider there, including the roommate issue. Mine is moving into a studio. While I am not thrilled at him living alone at least I know we won’t be dealing with roommates who leave me financially responsible.<br>
One more thing: for those who have students moving into apartments, you may want to go over some basic maintenance skills. Changing batteries in smoke detectors, plunging a toilet, etc.</p>
<p>I went through similar BS in Boston with my son. Started my own thread too! LOL. Apparently the collapse of the housing market has not reached Boston yet. The sellers (owners, renters, whatever you want to call them) are still calling the shots. After being initially turned down as a cosigner (what? unemployed with no verifiable income isn’t good enough??) they finally agreed to rent us the apartment (oh, thank you! thank you! kind landlord). I mean, they get 1st+last+ security deposit + rental fee up front, or four months on a 12 month lease. How much are they really risking?</p>
<p>Adding to basic skills. Call at the first sign of any problem. Don’t wait till Friday afternoon! Also if you have water on the floor it has to be coming from somewhere! My Dear Sweet D rented a room in a house. Her room was next to a bathroom that she did not use. She had water under her desk. She wiped it up. A week later she noticed water again- much more of it. The bathroom next door to her had a broken pipe. The damage was much greater to the drywall, the wood floor in my D’s room and to the bathroom then it would have been if my D has said something when she first noticed water on her floor. Ditto water on your ceiling. Leak is probably from the apartment above you. There are many good landlords out there. They are happy to fix things if you let them know there is a problem.
One bit of advice we give friends. Have your child come up with the security deposit themselves. It gives them a much bigger incentive to return the house or apartment clean if it is their money at stake.</p>
<p>It seems like college neighborhoods don’t have problems filling their apartments. It’s location, location, location. My two oldest live in a student ghetto right now in a city that has gone to seed in terms of the economy. But the housing market around the university is still very strong.</p>
<p>S1 and roommates found the “perfect” house last. Then we found out the realtor wanted all the same personal info. that the OP posted . They even wanted our bosses ph. numbers so they could “verify” our employment and income. DH said “no way”. S1 was upset because apparantly the other guys’ parents were willing to give up all this info.</p>
<p>They started a new search,looked in the student newspaper found a dump in a beyond sketchy neigborhood conveniently located about 3 blocks from campus. They signed the lease…nothing required of parents. </p>
<p>S2 and 3 friends (all freshman) just signed a lease a lease on an off campus rental house for next year. It too is a dump but the short 2 block walk to campus makes it a prize. The area is actually designated as a historic district but the houses have been student rentals for so long that most are pretty dumpy. The only thing the landlord required was a “letter of assurance” that I emailed (not even signed) to him stating that I was aware S1 was leasing and that he had our support.</p>
<p>Glad that now the OP can see such info requested isn’t outrageous; in fact it now has been shown it is quite common, and why.</p>
<p>Mom60 (post 24) makes yet another great point. Here in Ohio, a landlord has to keep a place habitable. That is a low standard. It doesn’t have to be “pretty” or “nice” or other wordings. I am happy to say I provide nicer than just habitable; but that is all that is required. I would neither rent nor lease a place with a hole in the wall, but here it is legal to do so. In Ohio it is the tenants’ obligation to report problems. In Mom’s post she gives the example of wiping up a water mess where there was no water running, but told no one, a week later wiped it up again. I am guessing after the second time, she reported it. In Ohio, if she had merely continued to wipe it up, she could be held liable for any damage the water did- that could have been avoided by prompt reporting. In that example, once the landlord knew of the problem he’d have to fix the pipe, but a tenant might have to pay for wall repair or other damage. Also, I once had to hire a plumber to fix a stopped up toilet on July 4 because tenant had guests coming that day. While he was there, she explained to him it had been stopped up for 3 days, but she just now “got around” to calling me. He worked 1/2 hr, the problem turned out to be a toy firetruck flushed and lodged in toilet trap. Her kid’s toy. Her bill. $200. Plumber service call and holiday rates are expensive.</p>
<p>lje’s D may have made a poor choice; but let’s don’t blame the landlord for that- he only offered the unit and she accepted.</p>
<p>As far as the housing crunch goes, that is generally good news for a landlord not bad news. The fewer people that can buy, or continue to own their homes means more people must rent. More demand for rental housing, and less supply permits a landlord to be more selective.</p>
<p>younghoss, I am not blaming the landlord for my daughter’s and her roommmates poor choice. I am simply appalled that he keeps his property in such deplorable condition. As a landlord myself ( husband and I rent our former residence to 5 young men ) I find it disturbing that he shows so little regard for his tenants and doesn’t put small upgrades into HIS property …the place is awful.
I have a conscience and would not expect my tenants to live with anything that I wouldn’t be able to accept myself.</p>
<p>My S is renting an apartment with 3 other guys. All 4 parent/s had to sign a guarantor’s agreement, but I don’t remember any questions for bank or credit account numbers. This is our first experience with doing this as he is our oldest. The complex is new and close to campus so I guess it’s going to be okay. Great tip about teaching the basic maintenance. I will do that right away.</p>
<p>Make sure you teach kids about gas stoves. My S’s pilot light went out (it was very old stove). Roommate had passed out, but S luckily woke up, feeling awful. Fortunately, he called someone in building, and they got all the windows open and took care of roommate.</p>