Off-Campus Apartments Leases especially College Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer to find a new tenant to take over the lease. If you can find someone that will pass the credit check, etc then the landlord might release you from the contract. Alternatively, you can request that they find a new tenant and pay the rent until they find someone new. Until you talk to the landlord you will not know what they are willing to do with regard to negotiating. I am a landlord and have worked with tenants in 3 of my properties regarding the need to leave the lease early. I let one group go one month early (lost that month), offered to find a new tenant for another (they lost their security deposit to pay the last month, but got out of 4 additional months) and gave 1/2 rent for 2 months to the other group. I worked with the tenants to find solutions after they came to me asking for help. Talk to your landlord, be polite and reasonable.

Bottom line, YOU signed the contract for your kid to live off-campus so you signed into an obligation. It is not the landlord's fault this happened and, truthfully, your kid could live in the apartment. UMD did not require off-campus students to leave their properties. You are simply choosing for them not live there. That is your choice, not a requirement.
However, reasonable people respond to requests for assistance. Calling into question the validity of a contract or the fairness will not get you anywhere. Working toward a solution will, but remember you have a contract which is an obligation. Has your employer stopped paying their rent/mortgage on the space even though they are shut down? Of course not....

Employers are getting either free grants and interest-free loans in order to pay for their rent, so not sure what point you are making. I would happily pay the $1000/month if the government was paying it for me.

The landlord is a apartment building company, not an individual person. As a landlord, what would you do if a renter simply moved out and stopped paying rent?

DP, but I would sue. And win.

Heavily doubt it, you'd lose more on attorney costs than the winnings and most juries would be far more sympathetic to the renter considering the current conditions.

Most likely you'd settle for half the owed amount to avoid going to court.

This would be in small claims court, where you represent yourself, and which does not have a jury (and even if it was a jury trial, I'd win on summary judgment).

Civil court always has right to a jury. You can represent yourself as a unscrupulous landlord suing a 20-something broke college student who can't pay rent because they lost their part-time college job due to the lockdown, over $3000. Try it honey.

Or the small claims court judge might see unscrupulous parents who can $900 for a room trying it on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, maybe try UMD's off-campus housing group on Facebook to see if anyone in your situation has found a workaround. I'm not sure why you think you're entitled to break your contract, but you're certainly not alone.

My college student stayed in her apartment when her classes went on-line (not at UMD). There was no particular reason for her to travel home.

I realize this is not the case in college park, but at my kid’s school, which is in a rural location, the college and the town manager asked/told all students to stay away even if they had off campus housing unless they had very unusual circumstances so as not to overload the health care system. Most landlords did not give any kind of break. Unfortunately the contracts are with a landlord not the school.

Just mentioning this for everyone saying they could stay if they wanted to - sometimes they actually can’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are paying over $1000 rent for DS's unoccupied room in a 4-bedroom apartment in College Park. Why would we expect not to have to pay out the remainder of our lease? We signed a contract and we will fulfill our legal obligation.

Good, this thread is not for you.

Why isn't it? I'm in the same situation as the OP, but I'm not looking for an excuse to not pay!

This thread is for people that are looking for remedies, not people that are happy to pay.

Remedies is the wrong word. A predicate for a remedy is some sort of wrongdoing, and there's none of that here. You're looking for relief.

The wrongdoing is the government shutting off schools

That has nothing to do with OP's obligation to pay the lease.

Yes it does. People lease places near a college with the assumption college will provide a service. They are not providing the service and the apartment is useless and more dangerous in many situations.

This may be a good argument if you are in a college residence. But OP's kid is not. He entered into a lease with a private landlord, who is providing exactly the service he contracted to provide - a place to live. And the apartment is not useless - it can be used as a place to live. It's exactly the same as any other residential lease. And while evictions have been put on hold, there is absolutely nothing that changes the underlying obligations of the lease.

It doesn't matter. He entered a contract with a college to have on site classes and to do that he had to rent an apartment. Since the college did not deliver, they caused this family to take on unneeded expenses. They are receiving millions of dollars from the govt to make things right and they should make things right.

I don't think this is up to the leasing agent to make right, it's up to the colleges.

DP.

"He entered into a contract with a college to have on site classes...": OK. I doubt that "contract" actually stipulated "on site" in writing but let's figure that was everyone's assumption including the college's. Fair enough.

"...and to do that he had to rent an apartment." No, he did not "have" to rent an apartment. For all a college knows, if a student is not in campus housing, that student could be living in an apartment or at home with parents or with other relatives or a spouse or sleeping in his car (a situation in which some indigent students actually find themselves in some expensive parts of the country even in non-virus times, sadly). The college provides classes. Unless you are paying room fees TO the college, it does not owe you housing, or payment for housing you choose to rent off campus. What part of "OFF campus"escapes you?

Trying to make this something for which the college should pay is so massively self-centered and legally wrong it's boggling.

+1. How has this gone on 4 pages? OP is out of luck.

[Anonymous]

PP the OP has explained multiple times that this thread is for parents whose children are in private apartments to discuss solutions. If you don't have anything to contribute to the discussion, don't post here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer to find a new tenant to take over the lease. If you can find someone that will pass the credit check, etc then the landlord might release you from the contract. Alternatively, you can request that they find a new tenant and pay the rent until they find someone new. Until you talk to the landlord you will not know what they are willing to do with regard to negotiating. I am a landlord and have worked with tenants in 3 of my properties regarding the need to leave the lease early. I let one group go one month early (lost that month), offered to find a new tenant for another (they lost their security deposit to pay the last month, but got out of 4 additional months) and gave 1/2 rent for 2 months to the other group. I worked with the tenants to find solutions after they came to me asking for help. Talk to your landlord, be polite and reasonable.

Bottom line, YOU signed the contract for your kid to live off-campus so you signed into an obligation. It is not the landlord's fault this happened and, truthfully, your kid could live in the apartment. UMD did not require off-campus students to leave their properties. You are simply choosing for them not live there. That is your choice, not a requirement.
However, reasonable people respond to requests for assistance. Calling into question the validity of a contract or the fairness will not get you anywhere. Working toward a solution will, but remember you have a contract which is an obligation. Has your employer stopped paying their rent/mortgage on the space even though they are shut down? Of course not....

Employers are getting either free grants and interest-free loans in order to pay for their rent, so not sure what point you are making. I would happily pay the $1000/month if the government was paying it for me.

The landlord is a apartment building company, not an individual person. As a landlord, what would you do if a renter simply moved out and stopped paying rent?

DP, but I would sue. And win.

Heavily doubt it, you'd lose more on attorney costs than the winnings and most juries would be far more sympathetic to the renter considering the current conditions.

Most likely you'd settle for half the owed amount to avoid going to court.

This would be in small claims court, where you represent yourself, and which does not have a jury (and even if it was a jury trial, I'd win on summary judgment).

Civil court always has right to a jury. You can represent yourself as a unscrupulous landlord suing a 20-something broke college student who can't pay rent because they lost their part-time college job due to the lockdown, over $3000. Try it honey.

Or the small claims court judge might see unscrupulous parents who can $900 for a room trying it on.

Oh I'm sure the judge would empathize with a landlord over parents struggling during a global pandemic, especially a sympathetic landlord like you. Lmao.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP the OP has explained multiple times that this thread is for parents whose children are in private apartments to discuss solutions. If you don't have anything to contribute to the discussion, don't post here.

Except there is no solution that can be found by discussion here. Discussion with the landlord, maybe, but they’re under no obligation.

[Anonymous]

PP This thread is literally 3 parents discussion what they remedies they can undertake and 5 pages of other shrills complaining about OP daring to discuss this topic. Now stop derailing this thread. Landlords are a poison on this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP the OP has explained multiple times that this thread is for parents whose children are in private apartments to discuss solutions. If you don't have anything to contribute to the discussion, don't post here.

You and the OP believe you can decide who posts on which threads? You must be new to DCUM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are paying over $1000 rent for DS's unoccupied room in a 4-bedroom apartment in College Park. Why would we expect not to have to pay out the remainder of our lease? We signed a contract and we will fulfill our legal obligation.

Good, this thread is not for you.

Why isn't it? I'm in the same situation as the OP, but I'm not looking for an excuse to not pay!

This thread is for people that are looking for remedies, not people that are happy to pay.

Remedies is the wrong word. A predicate for a remedy is some sort of wrongdoing, and there's none of that here. You're looking for relief.

The wrongdoing is the government shutting off schools

That has nothing to do with OP's obligation to pay the lease.

Yes it does. People lease places near a college with the assumption college will provide a service. They are not providing the service and the apartment is useless and more dangerous in many situations.

This may be a good argument if you are in a college residence. But OP's kid is not. He entered into a lease with a private landlord, who is providing exactly the service he contracted to provide - a place to live. And the apartment is not useless - it can be used as a place to live. It's exactly the same as any other residential lease. And while evictions have been put on hold, there is absolutely nothing that changes the underlying obligations of the lease.

It doesn't matter. He entered a contract with a college to have on site classes and to do that he had to rent an apartment. Since the college did not deliver, they caused this family to take on unneeded expenses. They are receiving millions of dollars from the govt to make things right and they should make things right.

I don't think this is up to the leasing agent to make right, it's up to the colleges.

DP.

"He entered into a contract with a college to have on site classes...": OK. I doubt that "contract" actually stipulated "on site" in writing but let's figure that was everyone's assumption including the college's. Fair enough.

"...and to do that he had to rent an apartment." No, he did not "have" to rent an apartment. For all a college knows, if a student is not in campus housing, that student could be living in an apartment or at home with parents or with other relatives or a spouse or sleeping in his car (a situation in which some indigent students actually find themselves in some expensive parts of the country even in non-virus times, sadly). The college provides classes. Unless you are paying room fees TO the college, it does not owe you housing, or payment for housing you choose to rent off campus. What part of "OFF campus"escapes you?

Trying to make this something for which the college should pay is so massively self-centered and legally wrong it's boggling.

The commute is 8 hours ... So yes he had to rent an apartment. The college does not have enough housing for all students, So yes he had to rent off campus. The college is receiving relief fund "for the students" and there is no reason why they can refund partial rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are paying over $1000 rent for DS's unoccupied room in a 4-bedroom apartment in College Park. Why would we expect not to have to pay out the remainder of our lease? We signed a contract and we will fulfill our legal obligation.

Good, this thread is not for you.

Why isn't it? I'm in the same situation as the OP, but I'm not looking for an excuse to not pay!

This thread is for people that are looking for remedies, not people that are happy to pay.

Remedies is the wrong word. A predicate for a remedy is some sort of wrongdoing, and there's none of that here. You're looking for relief.

The wrongdoing is the government shutting off schools

That has nothing to do with OP's obligation to pay the lease.

Yes it does. People lease places near a college with the assumption college will provide a service. They are not providing the service and the apartment is useless and more dangerous in many situations.

This may be a good argument if you are in a college residence. But OP's kid is not. He entered into a lease with a private landlord, who is providing exactly the service he contracted to provide - a place to live. And the apartment is not useless - it can be used as a place to live. It's exactly the same as any other residential lease. And while evictions have been put on hold, there is absolutely nothing that changes the underlying obligations of the lease.

It doesn't matter. He entered a contract with a college to have on site classes and to do that he had to rent an apartment. Since the college did not deliver, they caused this family to take on unneeded expenses. They are receiving millions of dollars from the govt to make things right and they should make things right.

I don't think this is up to the leasing agent to make right, it's up to the colleges.

DP.

"He entered into a contract with a college to have on site classes...": OK. I doubt that "contract" actually stipulated "on site" in writing but let's figure that was everyone's assumption including the college's. Fair enough.

"...and to do that he had to rent an apartment." No, he did not "have" to rent an apartment. For all a college knows, if a student is not in campus housing, that student could be living in an apartment or at home with parents or with other relatives or a spouse or sleeping in his car (a situation in which some indigent students actually find themselves in some expensive parts of the country even in non-virus times, sadly). The college provides classes. Unless you are paying room fees TO the college, it does not owe you housing, or payment for housing you choose to rent off campus. What part of "OFF campus"escapes you?

Trying to make this something for which the college should pay is so massively self-centered and legally wrong it's boggling.

The commute is 8 hours ... So yes he had to rent an apartment. The college does not have enough housing for all students, So yes he had to rent off campus. The college is receiving relief fund "for the students" and there is no reason why they can refund partial rent.

Some colleges do guarantee housing for all four years of undergrad. Your kid isn't at one of those. You knew that when you sent your kid there.

While this whole circumstance with the virus was unforeseen, it does not alter the fact that you knew from the start that the college could not provide housing for every student every year. Unless the college somehow paid your kid's off-campus rent prior to the shutdown, the college is not responsible for paying it now.

Colleges' relief funds are there to help truly needy students. Your son had a place to go home to when all this hit--home to you, with your roof over his head and your food in his stomach. You seem blissfully unaware that there are some college students who do not have family homes to which they can run when a pandemic shuts their schools. There are students living on their own who cannot afford food without their campus jobs or other jobs that now are shuttered. etc. Those are the students who are in line ahead of you and your son for those student relief funds. Shame on you and your messed-up priorities.

[Anonymous]

Canada just announced students getting $1,200 / month through August.

I can't imagine students in the US will not receive any relief money.

Shame on people who assume the kids are paying out of pocket and have not had to take loans out for school. What a bubble DCUM lives in. It's pathetic.

I had to cosign but I'm not paying for his college. He is.

They can't work their universities jobs, they're not earning money to pay their rent and buy food.

[Anonymous]

PP Again, why are you posting in this thread to shame parents who are struggling during a global pandemic for trying to find remedies from paying $1000/month for an apartment they aren't using? You sound like a genuinely disgusting person. Please leave the thread, this thread is meant for parents to discuss the rooming situation, not for gross individuals like you to bootlick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Canada just announced students getting $1,200 / month through August.

I can't imagine students in the US will not receive any relief money.

Shame on people who assume the kids are paying out of pocket and have not had to take loans out for school. What a bubble DCUM lives in. It's pathetic.

I had to cosign but I'm not paying for his college. He is.

They can't work their universities jobs, they're not earning money to pay their rent and buy food.

Exactly. The community in DCUM is utterly gross, middle-aged bureaucratic administrative government workers that eat off federal taxpayers, then complain about taxpayers that want the money they paid in taxes returned to them in the form of services during a global pandemic.

Canada provides $1200/month for students, meanwhile American students don't even get the $1200 or $500 one-time payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer to find a new tenant to take over the lease. If you can find someone that will pass the credit check, etc then the landlord might release you from the contract. Alternatively, you can request that they find a new tenant and pay the rent until they find someone new. Until you talk to the landlord you will not know what they are willing to do with regard to negotiating. I am a landlord and have worked with tenants in 3 of my properties regarding the need to leave the lease early. I let one group go one month early (lost that month), offered to find a new tenant for another (they lost their security deposit to pay the last month, but got out of 4 additional months) and gave 1/2 rent for 2 months to the other group. I worked with the tenants to find solutions after they came to me asking for help. Talk to your landlord, be polite and reasonable.

Bottom line, YOU signed the contract for your kid to live off-campus so you signed into an obligation. It is not the landlord's fault this happened and, truthfully, your kid could live in the apartment. UMD did not require off-campus students to leave their properties. You are simply choosing for them not live there. That is your choice, not a requirement.
However, reasonable people respond to requests for assistance. Calling into question the validity of a contract or the fairness will not get you anywhere. Working toward a solution will, but remember you have a contract which is an obligation. Has your employer stopped paying their rent/mortgage on the space even though they are shut down? Of course not....

Employers are getting either free grants and interest-free loans in order to pay for their rent, so not sure what point you are making. I would happily pay the $1000/month if the government was paying it for me.

The landlord is a apartment building company, not an individual person. As a landlord, what would you do if a renter simply moved out and stopped paying rent?

DP, but I would sue. And win.

Heavily doubt it, you'd lose more on attorney costs than the winnings and most juries would be far more sympathetic to the renter considering the current conditions.

Most likely you'd settle for half the owed amount to avoid going to court.

This would be in small claims court, where you represent yourself, and which does not have a jury (and even if it was a jury trial, I'd win on summary judgment).

Civil court always has right to a jury. You can represent yourself as a unscrupulous landlord suing a 20-something broke college student who can't pay rent because they lost their part-time college job due to the lockdown, over $3000. Try it honey.

Or the small claims court judge might see unscrupulous parents who can $900 for a room trying it on.

Oh I'm sure the judge would empathize with a landlord over parents struggling during a global pandemic, especially a sympathetic landlord like you. Lmao.

The judge might empathize with the parents, or the broke student, but that has nothing to do with it. There’s law and a contract and that’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Offer to find a new tenant to take over the lease. If you can find someone that will pass the credit check, etc then the landlord might release you from the contract. Alternatively, you can request that they find a new tenant and pay the rent until they find someone new. Until you talk to the landlord you will not know what they are willing to do with regard to negotiating. I am a landlord and have worked with tenants in 3 of my properties regarding the need to leave the lease early. I let one group go one month early (lost that month), offered to find a new tenant for another (they lost their security deposit to pay the last month, but got out of 4 additional months) and gave 1/2 rent for 2 months to the other group. I worked with the tenants to find solutions after they came to me asking for help. Talk to your landlord, be polite and reasonable.

Bottom line, YOU signed the contract for your kid to live off-campus so you signed into an obligation. It is not the landlord's fault this happened and, truthfully, your kid could live in the apartment. UMD did not require off-campus students to leave their properties. You are simply choosing for them not live there. That is your choice, not a requirement.
However, reasonable people respond to requests for assistance. Calling into question the validity of a contract or the fairness will not get you anywhere. Working toward a solution will, but remember you have a contract which is an obligation. Has your employer stopped paying their rent/mortgage on the space even though they are shut down? Of course not....

Employers are getting either free grants and interest-free loans in order to pay for their rent, so not sure what point you are making. I would happily pay the $1000/month if the government was paying it for me.

The landlord is a apartment building company, not an individual person. As a landlord, what would you do if a renter simply moved out and stopped paying rent?

DP, but I would sue. And win.

Heavily doubt it, you'd lose more on attorney costs than the winnings and most juries would be far more sympathetic to the renter considering the current conditions.

Most likely you'd settle for half the owed amount to avoid going to court.

This would be in small claims court, where you represent yourself, and which does not have a jury (and even if it was a jury trial, I'd win on summary judgment).

Civil court always has right to a jury. You can represent yourself as a unscrupulous landlord suing a 20-something broke college student who can't pay rent because they lost their part-time college job due to the lockdown, over $3000. Try it honey.

Or the small claims court judge might see unscrupulous parents who can $900 for a room trying it on.

Oh I'm sure the judge would empathize with a landlord over parents struggling during a global pandemic, especially a sympathetic landlord like you. Lmao.

The judge might empathize with the parents, or the broke student, but that has nothing to do with it. There’s law and a contract and that’s it.

Again, this is about a jury trial, not a judge.