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September 21, 2004
Don’t want crumbling foundations? Research before renting
Last year, Jenna McManus was forced to move.
Now a Hamline junior, she was living in a house near the intersection of Snelling and Taylor when it was deemed too unsafe for tenants.
“There were two-and-a-half typed pages of code violations,” McManus said.
There comes a time for many college students when dorm life, with its RA enforcement, noisy neighbors and public bathrooms, stops seeming like great excitement and starts becoming a gross nuisance.
For these independence seekers, the solution is to move off-campus and rent a house or apartment.
The technicalities of moving, however, are often overlooked.
McManus admits she didn’t do enough research before renting her house.
“We didn’t really know the landlord,” she said. “We just called from an [advertised] sign.”
She said at the time, she suspected that the landlord wasn’t the greatest.
While she wasn’t worried initially about the condition of her home, McManus said that as time went on, she realized what poor shape it was in.
“One time I was lying in bed and my roommates were moving around on the second floor above me,” she said. “The ceiling above my bed shifted [from the movement]. I didn’t feel safe.”
Eventually, McManus and her housemates were forced to move. The home was inspected because of suspicions of its bad condition, and it was confirmed to be too dangerous to reside in.
“We came home and the landlords said that [we] had three days to be out completely,” she said. “I didn’t even have time to move my bed right away.”
Andy Dawkins, a Hamline graduate and director of St. Paul’s Department of Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement, says that students do not have to be forced to live in such low-quality buildings.
“If you have things that need fixing,” he said, “you should go to the landlord first, because it’s their responsibility.”
The Department of Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement, formerly referred to as the Division of Property Code Enforcement, aims to keep St. Paul neighborhoods clean and safe.
What exactly constitutes clean or safe? When it comes to cleanliness or general appearance, Dawkins said, it is between the tenant and the landlord to decide what is acceptable and what isn’t.
If a renter doesn’t like an aspect of his or her property, he or she should most likely speak to the landlord before making any changes, he said.
“Really [any improvement] that is permanent needs to be checked with the landlord,” said Dawkins. “You need to look at your lease for some of the rules.”
“If you want to touch up the place with some paint, I don’t think the landlord would mind, unless he didn’t like the color. You can’t do anything permanent without talking to him first,” Dawkins said.
Where safety is concerned, there are city codes that must be adhered to.
Dawkins’ department suggests that if a tenant is concerned about safety at home, he or she should call District Council and request that a city inspector to come and check the property.
While he said that a good relationship between tenant and landlord is important, Dawkins mentioned that the landlord does not have complete control over every aspect of his or her tenant’s life. For example, a landlord cannot come into a tenant’s home without consent.
“State law says that unless it’s an emergency, the landlord has to make arrangements [to enter a home],” he said. “Otherwise, it’s an invasion of privacy to come without an appointment.”
Also, a landlord doesn’t have the power force a tenant away, even if the landlord believes they have sound reason to do so.
Said Dawkins: “State law and lease says that you have to be law-abiding, that you can’t do damage to the property, and that the landlord can evict for not following the lease.”
“But the tenant should know that you can’t be evicted forcibly by a landlord,” Dawkins added.
“Only a judge can actually order an eviction. The landlord can’t take the law in to his or her own hands.”
Though the Department of Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement looks out for the needs of tenants, it is also concerned with the rights of entire communities, including neighbors of people renters.
Dawkins felt it important for new renters, especially college-age tenants, to realize that they may be living among people who have lives very different from their own.
“Mostly, just be respectful of neighbors and of the landlord,” he said. “You definitely don’t want it to become a party house where people disturb the peace and urinate in public.”
McManus’ first renting experience taught her that creating a relationship with a landlord before renting is beneficial.
“Know your landlords,” she said. “Be thorough in your inspection of the house. Talk to others who have rented from them.”
“When we were moving in, we had never seen [the house] with the lights on before. There was gum underneath the mantle on my fireplace and someone just painted over it.”
Alan Sickbert, Hamline’s associate dean of students, along with Dawkins, is attempting to make renting information that would be of particular interest to students available through a brochure.
Dawkins said the brochure will be printed in the near future and will be mailed to students living off-campus.
Posted by Dax at September 21, 2004 03:27 AM
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