<p>Just found out that my son (north east area) did not have heat in his off campus house…at all. (it’s a row house over 100 years old).</p>
<p>The guy “running” the house didn’t want to confront the landlord. As many know, it’s been a bitterly cold November in the north east. Needless to say, I immediately contacted the Zoning Officer in the township…they went to the house…and the landlord was required to call the oil company.</p>
<p>Somehow the oil spilt all over the basement floor. Does anyone know the implications of living in a house that reeks of fuel oil? My son is now home for Thanksgiving (the leak occured Monday). In other words, aside from the smell being really bad…the landlord is going to clean it up himself (shouldn’t he call in professionals)? </p>
<p>A house that reeks of spilled fuel oil is, in my opinion, uninhabitable, and the tenants might seek a rent abatement for any rent that accrues during the period of uninhabitability.</p>
<p>A couple of things. I agree with others…an oil spill needs to be properly addressed.</p>
<p>I was thinking…you are lucky that the apartment “includes” heat (yes, I know it wasn’t there…but you KWIM). In both of my kids’ cases in several apartments, THEY have been responsible for contracting with the oil or gas companies…and making sure there was fuel for heat…AND paying for it.</p>
<p>Hopefully this can be resolved quickly. I’m sure there are companies out there that specialize in cleaning up oil messes. The big question is…is there a leak somewhere? How did the oil “spill”? That needs to be reconciled so that oil purchases don’t go…well…down the drain.</p>
<p>This has to be Penn! That was my issue with the deplorable off-campus housing my son was in first semester last year. Second semester was better- not great, but better. I do think he had a stint where the heat wasn’t working even in the second place, though. The landlords truly are slum landlords. My son said the manager over their house was insane (literally).</p>
<p>Yes, the oil spill needs to be addressed and cleaned. Rent should be put in escrow and the landlord informed of the situation. This is why I am so against kids going off campus in the student ghetto. They are so unprepared to deal with these things and parents have to get involved for the infractions to be addressed. I told my son that I wanted no part of such scenarios. Already did my time with such dealings. My son’s room in his house had a sewer pipe rupture. The kids did a terrible job dealling with the situation and my son did not have use of his room for over a month. The stench still is there and the clean up was inadequate. I’m sure it was a problem in terms of a working environment for him. I had told him this so many times that these things tend to happen. </p>
<p>I have friends who are slumlords in a student ghetto. It is a cruddy job, and to make money you really have to let a lot of things go and be tough skinned. Not a position I would want. In my son’s case, he is getting a year’s start in the type of housing he’s going to have for a while in his field of work. Still I wish he did not have that distraction while in school.</p>
<p>“This is why I am so against kids going off campus in the student ghetto.”</p>
<p>And why the quality of campus housing, and whether it is guaranteed for 4 years, are rightly an issue for families investigating colleges.</p>
<p>My sister shared a rickety house off-campus at Brown. There was no central heat, just a gas furnace in the kitchen. All the bedrooms opened off the kitchen, so it was warm enough as long as the bedroom doors were open…but one of the roommates made a lot of noise with her skeezy boyfriend at night. My sister was forced to choose between shivering in an unheated room and being subjected to an amateur porn show all night. I’ll take the dorm any day.</p>
<p>Hanna: Your sister should have thought of something along the lines of this: [xkcd</a> - A Webcomic - Loud Sex](<a href=“http://xkcd.com/316/]xkcd”>xkcd: Loud Sex)</p>
<p>If you can smell nearly any kind of fuel, there’s a fire hazard. Regardless of what the laws say, it sounds dangerous.</p>
<p>Those old houses, you also run the risk of bad/outdated wiring (especially if the owner is negligent…) which of course only makes the fuel problem worse - if it sparks in any area where fuel vapors have been allowed to accumulate and mix thoroughly with oxygen, it can certainly set anything close by on fire immediately.</p>
<p>S1 lives in a ramshackle (think Animal House) house with 3 friends. He told us last night that it has gas heat but the landlord told them they shouldn’t use it because it was “old and inefficient”. Part of the house has baseboard electric heat which is also pretty inefficient. They have the thermostat at 65 and keep a pile of blankets in the living area plus a comforter and two blankets on the beds at night! </p>
<p>They gave up their nice apt. for this dump but swear the location (two blocks from school and one block from the street where all the student hangouts are) is worth it.<br>
DH says they will never remember the apt. but years from now they will look back with fond memories of their senior “dump”.</p>
<p>My kids have been lucky. DS rented off campus in Boston and there was a rental company that handled the property. It wasn’t “lovely” but it was clean, had heat (which the kids paid for), and was very convenient. Plus…the rental company was VERY responsive to repair needs…and did them quickly.</p>
<p>DD is renting a house with 6 others and truthfully, it’s as nice as our house…quartz counters in the kitchen, beautiful maintained yard, new appliances (including washer/dryer)…and 2 blocks from the school.</p>
<p>In both cases…cheaper than the college housing. </p>
<p>Kids need to be very careful when renting off campus. The really need to investigate carefully how the landlord or agent responds to needs…if there are any. In most cases, the previous tenants will be VERY willing to share info. Good to talk to them!!</p>
<p>Our experience has been similar to thumper’s. None of our kids, or their friends, has had any real problems. I think that a lot of kids don’t do enough research prior to renting an off-campus place. If you look at a lot of different rentals, talk to current tenants, find out what landlord/tenant rules and by-laws exist, do your research, you’re likely to avoid a lot of these problems, at most schools.</p>
<p>^^ the key is “at most schools”. I truly believe (and I know the area well) that MOST of the housing around my son’s school is horrible. There ARE exceptions, of course, and they get snatched up fast. On the other hand, the housing around Rice is generally very good.</p>
<p>Find out why they are moving. Most will be very honest. Both of my kids were moving into places where the current tenants were graduating…and had resided for multiple years with the same landlord…a good sign. Most kids (and their parents) won’t stay in the same place if there are multiple problems. If it’s a multifamily dwelling, talk to the neighbors too.</p>
<p>We did a lot of research and there was little to be had so we got a place that didn’t work out but managed to find a much better place. It was an ancient pair of buildings that had been totally gutted and rebuilt with a restaurant and bank underneath the apartments. Our son had the place to himself for the first semester (the other 7 units were empty as they were very choosy on tenants). This year the apartments are full - mainly grad students, seniors or athletes. The place is professionally managed and our son is 15 seconds from classes. Police station, convenience store and two restaurants across the street. The management company is very responsive to phone calls and there’s a dumpster for trash. Smoke detectors in every room, sprinklers, CO detectors, multiple outside escape exits from every room except for one bedroom which has the door and a window escape to a flat roof. There is another window that is probably survivable to the sidewalk.</p>
<p>In any kind of student housing, I think that escape from potential fire is important. Especially when you have kids drinking. A sprinkler system is a big plus too.</p>
<p>The suggestion of stopping rent payments to the landlord and placing the money in escrow is an excellent suggestion. </p>
<p>When dealing with these rental situations people often forget that the lease and laws protect the tenants just as much as they protect the landlord. If the landlord has violated the lease or is in violation of other applicable laws the tenant can withhold rent payments and, depending on the situation, may have a legit claim to not having to pay rent for some or all of the period in question. Placing the money in escrow demonstrates to a judge (if it gets that far) that the tenants have the money to pay but are simply withholding it from the landlord (simply not paying period can often send the wrong message). </p>
<p>The situation with the spilled heating oil sounds totally unacceptable and I would call all the county offices you can find. This is essentially a fuel spill and for the landlord to do anything other than immediately pull out all the stops to sort the situation out ASAP is unacceptable and certainly grounds to withhold rent.</p>
<p>Private rentals in college towns can be full of problems (although there can also be some very good and well managed properties available too if one does their research).</p>
<p>I recently heard of a big crackdown on security deposit fraud in one college town. A rental company was constantly assessing tenants several hundred dollars in ‘repair and cleaning’ charges, but they didn’t think ahead to the fact that the future tenants might be friends with former tenants. When one group noticed that the charged cleaning and repairs were never actually done (with the rental company just pocketing the cash) the rental company quickly found the local authorities busting down their door…</p>
<p>My husband and I will drive out tomorrow (Sunday) and check it out. I will be in contact (again) with the City if the clean-up wasn’t adequate. I gave my son (last year) one of those rope ladders from Home Depot. About $30.</p>
<p>The school isn’t Penn State…it’s Lehigh. Bethlehem is a Slum town. Last year a kid next to my son’s house got shot in the head. </p>
<p>Now, I have two other kids in colleges, and one lives off campus at the University of Delaware. Really nice apartment…as is most of them in the area. She tells me that even the run down type of houses (frats mostly) are NOTHING like the slum houses at Lehigh (she’s been to several parties at both locations so is qualified to make a judgement). My other child is at West Chester and can attest to the same…most of the off campus housing (although looking a little “worn” on the outside) are NOTHING like the horrible conditions at Lehigh.</p>
<p>Lehigh doesn’t have the space to build more housing. They have (over the years) thrown frats out of their houses for “mild” infractions…so that they could move larger groups into the frat houses (special interest, sororities, etc.) Trust me…I know first hand.</p>
<p>However, all schools have their neighborhood problems. Armed groups of township females went around UDel last fall robbing kids at gunpoint (and not just kids walking alone…they would approach groups…break into house parties, etc…) There were a couple of “suspicious bomb like packages” at Westchester this past fall…I don’t think they turned out to be bombs…So no place is perfect.</p>