Why and how did your daughter sign a lease without you co-signing or at least knowing about? When my DD moved off campus all of the parents of her roommates had to co-sign since she none of them had jobs that would cover the rent.

And I cannot imagine not having a discussion with my kid about where they will be living, even if I expected them to handle everything other own. My DD did the apartment search with her friends and did all of the legwork with it, but I knew it was happening.

My college town had June-May leases. We signed the lease starting June 1st and had to move out by end of May. I remember this well because it was 1) the standard across the board, and 2) we bought the furniture from the previous tenants, who were graduating, and resold it to the next set of tenants who were rising seniors. A lot of people tried renting out their summer months if not around and it seemed like a lot did, to unerclassmen staying on campus for summer internships and jobs.

My college town had a mix of 12 month leases and 8 month leases.

For the 8 mo, you often paid more per month.

So really you just had to pick a couple of places you wanted, and decide which was better for your plans. In fact half the population stayed in school over summer so for some of them it was a better deal.

I never stayed in summer, always signed 8 month leases. Around April, you would often see ads in bathrooms or community boards for someone trying to transfer their summer portion of the lease. But I bet they didn’t have much luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought college rentals began in the fall, and kids sublease the final summer months (May June and July) to someone. Seems the roommates who were long planning to stay in the city got all the advantage, including cheaper rent this summer and an empty room not filled with a random sublessee. If daughter didn't sign until May, obviously nobody else was going to live in that place this summer, so why couldn't she just wait to sign until August? Seems daughter was peer pressured to sign before going home to alleviate burden of roommates divvying up 3 months of her rent. Daughter essentially subsidizes kids who were staying in the city this summer. That's how it seems.

You seem stuck on the fact that college rentals begin in the fall. That wasn't the case where I went to school. The place was available when it was available. Its not like the landlord would accept 2/3 of the rent for a few month because 2 people were moving in in the summer and 1 in the fall. They signed the lease together. Where I went to school if you didn't secure a place in the spring there would be nothing good available in the fall. And if your DD wanted to live with these friends there was no other option. You're not suggesting her friends should have paid for her option until she could move in are you?

+1. Dorm payments and campus-owned apartments payments and leases are aligned to the academic calendar. Privately owned apartments that happen to be near colleges are not, anymore than a house to rent in OP's neighborhood would be.

My kid goes to UW-Madison. 99.9% of the apartments near campus have August 14th - August 13th leases. Apartment move-in day is A Thing.

I went to NYU, and 0% of the apartments near any of the colleges gave a single flying flip about the start of the academic year. OP keeps whinging about the roommates "staying in the city" for summer internships and how they took advantage of her sweet sweet bumpkin, so I'm guessing this is not just a college town.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought college rentals began in the fall, and kids sublease the final summer months (May June and July) to someone. Seems the roommates who were long planning to stay in the city got all the advantage, including cheaper rent this summer and an empty room not filled with a random sublessee. If daughter didn't sign until May, obviously nobody else was going to live in that place this summer, so why couldn't she just wait to sign until August? Seems daughter was peer pressured to sign before going home to alleviate burden of roommates divvying up 3 months of her rent. Daughter essentially subsidizes kids who were staying in the city this summer. That's how it seems.

You seem stuck on the fact that college rentals begin in the fall. That wasn't the case where I went to school. The place was available when it was available. Its not like the landlord would accept 2/3 of the rent for a few month because 2 people were moving in in the summer and 1 in the fall. They signed the lease together. Where I went to school if you didn't secure a place in the spring there would be nothing good available in the fall. And if your DD wanted to live with these friends there was no other option. You're not suggesting her friends should have paid for her option until she could move in are you?

+1. Dorm payments and campus-owned apartments payments and leases are aligned to the academic calendar. Privately owned apartments that happen to be near colleges are not, anymore than a house to rent in OP's neighborhood would be.

My kid goes to UW-Madison. 99.9% of the apartments near campus have August 14th - August 13th leases. Apartment move-in day is A Thing.

Anonymous wrote:I thought college rentals began in the fall, and kids sublease the final summer months (May June and July) to someone. Seems the roommates who were long planning to stay in the city got all the advantage, including cheaper rent this summer and an empty room not filled with a random sublessee. If daughter didn't sign until May, obviously nobody else was going to live in that place this summer, so why couldn't she just wait to sign until August? Seems daughter was peer pressured to sign before going home to alleviate burden of roommates divvying up 3 months of her rent. Daughter essentially subsidizes kids who were staying in the city this summer. That's how it seems.

OP - you are unfairly maligning your daughter's friends and roommates, not to mention the landlord. And I think it is because you do not understand how a lease works.

Leases are not dictated based on the tenants' wishes. They are dictated when the previous lease is over. In this case, your daughter and her friends found a place with a lease starting in June. There is a strong chance that your daughter could have chosen a different place with a lease beginning in August, but she made a decision to sign a lease with this property beginning in June. And in doing so she put herself on the hook for the rent. Landlords often will not allow tenants to be added in the middle of a lease unless there is an extreme reason. Trust me, I am a landlord for a number of properties in the DC area and I expect the tenants to be on top of their situation. There needs to be a good reason for not having someone sign at the beginning of the lease. It's also not the landlord or her roommates' job to find a sublet for your daughter. The lease is for the property and for a certain number of people. On the flip side, one could argue that your daughter prevented the other girls from having someone else move in because she signed the lease and took the space. As far as anyone knows your daughter may have told her roommates that no one can live in her room while she is gone. You also should look up the concept of "jointly and severally" which is a standard clause in a lease that means that once your daughter signed the lease she is responsible for the full terms of the lease, including the payment of rent. If she didn't pay her portion she puts the burden on the other girls to pay. The other girls are not getting "cheaper rent". They are simply paying what they signed up for when they ALL (including your daughter) signed the lease.


In addition, your daughter could have and should have found a sublet. However, your daughter made the decision to waste her money rather than find a person to pay the rent for the summer months she was not there. Or she could have chosen to stay there and work/take classes just as her roommates are doing. I find it very curious that you are blaming everyone else for supposedly cheating your daughter rather than being annoyed that she did not do her due diligence to find someone to sublet. Frankly, this is all on your daughter. And with a mother who thinks everyone else has "done her wrong" I suspect that she never even bothered to try and find someone. She knew you would blame everyone else since she clearly never does anything wrong....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering how a teenager (mom's word) was able to sign a lease on her own? When my kids were in college, they both needed a co-signer (the bank of mom and dad) on their lease.

Maybe the main lease holder is already 21?

This is another reason why it's good to pick a college that has housing for all four years. Otherwise you do have to compete and get/reserve a room in a private rental where you pay over the summer.

EVERYONE in the apartment should be on the lease. This protects all the people in the apartment. If Suzi flunks out, she is still on the hook for her monthly payment, not the roommates. My DS in med school ( over 21) still needed a co-signer because he didn't have an income.

Anonymous wrote:If her name is on the lease and she's not subletting (maybe her roommates don't want to live with a stranger), then she needs to pay rent. I did that in college.

Good for her taking responsibility! I did the same for 6 weeks one summer. I signed the lease then took a job and so was still responsible.

I used to own a house in a college town ... rented out rooms with a 1 year lease. What do you think happened if I started the lease at the beginning of the fall semester?

I will tell you: the renter would skip out on June rule and august rents. like not pay it.

I could either charge more in rent for the 9 months or start the lease in June so if they did not pay over the summer I am not screwed.

Anonymous wrote:Wondering how a teenager (mom's word) was able to sign a lease on her own? When my kids were in college, they both needed a co-signer (the bank of mom and dad) on their lease.

Maybe the main lease holder is already 21?

This is another reason why it's good to pick a college that has housing for all four years. Otherwise you do have to compete and get/reserve a room in a private rental where you pay over the summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought college rentals began in the fall, and kids sublease the final summer months (May June and July) to someone. Seems the roommates who were long planning to stay in the city got all the advantage, including cheaper rent this summer and an empty room not filled with a random sublessee. If daughter didn't sign until May, obviously nobody else was going to live in that place this summer, so why couldn't she just wait to sign until August? Seems daughter was peer pressured to sign before going home to alleviate burden of roommates divvying up 3 months of her rent. Daughter essentially subsidizes kids who were staying in the city this summer. That's how it seems.

You seem stuck on the fact that college rentals begin in the fall. That wasn't the case where I went to school. The place was available when it was available. Its not like the landlord would accept 2/3 of the rent for a few month because 2 people were moving in in the summer and 1 in the fall. They signed the lease together. Where I went to school if you didn't secure a place in the spring there would be nothing good available in the fall. And if your DD wanted to live with these friends there was no other option. You're not suggesting her friends should have paid for her option until she could move in are you?

+1. Dorm payments and campus-owned apartments payments and leases are aligned to the academic calendar. Privately owned apartments that happen to be near colleges are not, anymore than a house to rent in OP's neighborhood would be.

Anonymous wrote:I thought college rentals began in the fall, and kids sublease the final summer months (May June and July) to someone. Seems the roommates who were long planning to stay in the city got all the advantage, including cheaper rent this summer and an empty room not filled with a random sublessee. If daughter didn't sign until May, obviously nobody else was going to live in that place this summer, so why couldn't she just wait to sign until August? Seems daughter was peer pressured to sign before going home to alleviate burden of roommates divvying up 3 months of her rent. Daughter essentially subsidizes kids who were staying in the city this summer. That's how it seems.

You seem stuck on the fact that college rentals begin in the fall. That wasn't the case where I went to school. The place was available when it was available. Its not like the landlord would accept 2/3 of the rent for a few month because 2 people were moving in in the summer and 1 in the fall. They signed the lease together. Where I went to school if you didn't secure a place in the spring there would be nothing good available in the fall. And if your DD wanted to live with these friends there was no other option. You're not suggesting her friends should have paid for her option until she could move in are you?

Wondering how a teenager (mom's word) was able to sign a lease on her own? When my kids were in college, they both needed a co-signer (the bank of mom and dad) on their lease.

OP's daughter isn't very smart, I sublet my room over the summers to summer school students when I was in college. Cha Ching.

Anonymous wrote:Op this was a dumb move since she is only there fall semester - on HER part. Stop blaming her friends! That is bizarre. Why is it THEIR fault rather than hers??

Because that's how some parents raise their kids. The sense of entitlement flows strong through some.people.