Many express upset about apartment management

By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Contributor At Harvard University, on the night before
the first day of finals, students gather behind a dorm, take off
their clothes and run a lap around Harvard yard ““ naked. At
UCLA students yell at midnight, bang pots and pans and engage in
water balloon fights. “On Glenrock it gets pretty intense;
people throw water balloons and the different apartments have wars
with hoses and that sort of thing,” said Molly Jones, a
third-year English and history student who lives on Glenrock.
During fall quarter’s midnight yell, Jones stayed in her
room. Her roommate, though, went outside to watch the festivities.
But later that night, when the two were in their room, Jones said
the landlord came to their door and handed them an eviction notice.
Like Jones, many UCLA students are having problems with their
landlords over a range of issues, including Midnight Yell policies,
security deposits, broken appliances and poor communication ““
in addition to rising rent prices that are already making some
students consider leaving Westwood altogether. Midnight
Yell During the Midnight Yell of fall quarter, 1999,
students burned their textbooks in the street and police marched
through Westwood. Television stations carried stories on
“riots” at UCLA on their news programs. One might
expect landlords to tighten up. Shelley Taylor, director of the
North Village Improvement Committee and a Westwood homeowner, said
at least one landlord has adopted a zero-tolerance policy. The
landlord of one Glenrock complex will give a tenant “three
days notice” if he or she is seen participating in the
midnight yell, according to Taylor. But Yvonne Swaby, the manager
of the Strathmore Regency complex, insists that she is not
specifically out to get students for “midnight
yelling.” “What building would permit people to yell at
midnight?” she said. “I imagine that, as a tenant, you
are permitted to do whatever you want in the street. If you do it
in the building, that’s another story.” “Our
policy is quiet after 10 p.m.,” she added. Swaby said no one
from her complex has been evicted for participating in the midnight
yell, but a few have been warned. Elizabeth Kemper, a counseling
attorney at UCLA’s Student Legal services, said they see
students who have been evicted “justly and unjustly.”
““ for participating in the Midnight Yell or otherwise. As for
Jones, after she and her roommate threatened to take legal action,
the landlord backed down and the two were not evicted.

Communication problems The Midnight Yell is not
the only thing causing strife between landlords and students. Jason
Medbury, a fourth-year theater student, lived in a Roebling
apartment complex last year. “Basically (our landlord) would
inconvenience the hell out of us,” he said Medbury said his
landlord was constantly saying the apartments would be upgraded,
but nothing was ever done. “They would say they’d
hook-up a new refrigerator with an ice machine, and they’d
hook it up, and it wouldn’t be operational. Or they’d
say, “˜Clean out your cabinets, we’re going to do some
work,’ and we’d clean out our cabinets and they
wouldn’t do anything,” he said. The landlord was not
available for comment after repeated phone calls. Patrick Lynch,
who lived with Medbury, found it difficult to express his
dissatisfaction to the landlord. “My biggest problem was,
whenever we’d approach him about anything he’d always
say, “˜You’re lying.'” According to Lynch,
the landlord once told them work would be done in their room the
night before it was done. When they asked why they were not given
more warning the landlord said “I told you about this a few
weeks ago,” Lynch said. Lynch said when he, Medbury and their
roommates sought to find out how much their rent would be on their
next lease, the landlord was misleading. “Every time
we’d go to him he’d have a higher number,” Lynch
said.         The four did not
know how much rent they would have to pay for their next year until
the evening before they were expected to sign or decline the lease,
according to Lynch. “He was not honest with us,” Lynch
said.

Security deposits Under Los Angeles civil code,
no portion of a tenant’s security deposit may be deemed
non-refundable. Any clause in a lease that says deductions will be
made from the security deposit to re-carpet floors or paint walls,
etc. is void. The landlord may deduct from a security deposit only
if there is damage beyond normal “wear and tear,”
Kemper said. “We deal with many issues as to whether
deductions were proper or improper,” Kemper said. Lynch said
he feels he was swindled by his landlord. “We didn’t
get as much back as we should have,” said Lynch, referring to
his security deposit, “From what I understand, though,
that’s pretty standard.” “There was no damage
done beyond normal usage,” he went on, “I think the
money was used for regular cleaning and for painting.”
Medbury said people he knew had money taken out of their deposit
because they had a scratch on their counter. “This year we
went back to that apartment, and the scratch was still
there,” he said. Kemper strongly recommends students document
the conditions of their apartment when they move in , and give a
copy of their documentations to their landlord, to prove whether or
not damage to the apartment existed before they became a
tenant.

Repairs Landlords are obliged by law to keep
their tenants’ apartments habitable, according to Kemper. By
law, problems with plumbing, such as overflowing toilets, must be
taken care of in a timely manner if the problems leave a unit
uninhabitable. But a landlord is not required to fix appliances,
such as a dishwasher or a refrigerator, unless the lease
specifically says so. “A lot of landlords don’t supply
refrigerators; some do, but they’re not required to,”
Kemper said. Some landlords supply dishwashers and refrigerators
but if they break, they break, Kemper added. Many students were
satisfied with the upkeep of their apartments. Though he had his
problems with his landlord, Medbury said maintenance was
“actually pretty good.” Jeff Schinske, a fifth-year
music student, has lived in the same apartment on Kelton Avenue for
two years and was also impressed at his landlord’s efforts in
repairing appliances. “Our refrigerator broke last year, and
pretty much as soon as we figured out the thing was dead our
manager had someone in here working on it.” But Jones found
it difficult to get things repaired. Though she has requested more
than once that they be repaired, the landlord has taken no action,
Jones said.

Can’t we all just get along? Landlords cannot be blamed
for all the difficulties that arise between themselves and tenants.
Eitan Goldstein, a second-year student who lives in a Levering
apartment, said he and his roommates have parties until 3 a.m. and
his landlord says they “think they own the
neighborhood.” “We’re actually pretty
disrespectful,” he said. Taylor said students do not really
understand that the community is not entirely theirs. “What
the UCLA student isn’t aware of is that there are a lot of
professionals and families in the area,” she said.
“You’ve got to be a good tenant, you’ve got to be
a good neighbor. You have to respect people’s rights to peace
and quiet,” she continued. Schinske said he and his roommate
do not have trouble with their apartment manager, but they do not
“push the envelope” either. “All I hear about is
all the horrible things that go on between students and landlords
““ but we don’t make waves here, so we have a good
relationship,” he said.